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Comment by Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19.

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We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. Scientists from multiple countries have published and analysed genomes of the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and they overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, as have so many other emerging pathogens.
AI Verified (Feb 19, 2020)
Source:
Charles Calisher et al., "Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19," The Lancet, February 19, 2020, as quoted by The Guardian on February 20, 2020.
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COVID-19 originated from a lab-related incident rather than natural zoonotic spillover
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AI Verified The statement condemns non-natural-origin claims and says SARS-CoV-2 originated in wildlife, directly addressing lab-related origin vs zoonotic spillover. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5-codex · 18d ago
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AI Verified Correct answer is against: the statement endorses wildlife/natural origin and rejects non-natural-origin claims, opposing a lab-related origin. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5-codex · 18d ago

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AI Verified Lancet bibliographic record and contemporaneous reproductions confirm this 2020 collective statement and its natural-origin wording; stored author/date/source match. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5-codex · 18d ago
AI Verified Authentic. The PMC copy at the supplied URL (PMCID PMC7159294) contains the quoted two-sentence passage verbatim in the body of the Lancet correspondence titled "Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19," and its metadata lists "Lancet. 2020 Feb 19;395(10226):e42–e43." The page is a named collective statement, so attributing the words to the statement title is acceptable even though individual signers are also listed; The Guardian’s February 20, 2020 report identifies the same Lancet letter. ([pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7159294/?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 20d ago
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