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Q: Is Covid-19 is a biological weapon? What is the different opinion made by scientist or researchers on this statement?

But first I want to to emphasize that opinions don’t count much in science. If you say something, you have to provide evidence or accept defeat of your argument in the beginning itself and keep quiet.

Never ask a scientist for his or her opinion. Always insist on evidence based facts.

The analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered to make it a biological weapon.

By comparing the available genome sequence data for known corona virus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes.

Shortly after the epidemic began, Chinese scientists sequenced the genome of SARS-CoV-2 and made the data available to researchers worldwide. Scientists in several other research institutions all over the world used this sequencing data to explore the origins and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 by focusing in on several tell-tale features of the virus.

The scientists analyzed the genetic template for spike proteins, armatures on the outside of the virus that it uses to grab and penetrate the outer walls of human and animal cells. More specifically, they focused on two important features of the spike protein: the receptor-binding domain (RBD), a kind of grappling hook that grips onto host cells, and the cleavage site, a molecular can opener that allows the virus to crack open and enter host cells.

The scientists found that the RBD portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins had evolved to effectively target a molecular feature on the outside of human cells called ACE2, a receptor involved in regulating blood pressure. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was so effective at binding the human cells, in fact, that the scientists concluded it was the result of natural selection and not the product of genetic engineering. This evidence for natural evolution was supported by data on SARS-CoV-2's backbone—its overall molecular structure. If someone were seeking to engineer a new coronavirus as a pathogen, they would have constructed it from the backbone of a virus known to cause illness. But the scientists found that the SARS-CoV-2 backbone differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins.

"These two features of the virus, the mutations in the RBD portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, rules out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2.

This research is crucially important to bring an evidence-based view to the rumors that have been circulating about the origins of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) causing COVID-19.

So scientists concluded that the virus is the product of natural evolution ending any speculation about deliberate genetic engineering.

You yourself can find this research paper as scientific evidence:

Kristian G. Andersen et al, The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, Nature Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0820-9

(My answer too is based on this paper)

Updates: 

The COVID-19 Virus May Have Been in Humans For Years, Study Suggests

Scientists have been racing to determine where the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has come from (1).

Studies raise some interesting possibilities regarding the origin of the new coronavirus. One of the scenarios suggests the virus may have been circulating harmlessly in human populations for quite a while before it became the pandemic that's now stopped the world in its tracks.

It is possible that a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans, acquiring [new genomic features] through adaptation during undetected human-to-human transmission," the team from the US, UK and Australia writes in the study.

Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases."

The researchers analysed genomic data available from SARS-CoV-2 and other similar coronaviruses, showing that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) sections of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins were so effective at binding to human cells, they had to be caused by natural selection.

"By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes," said one of the researchers, immunologist Kristian Andersen at Scripps Research.

"Two features of the virus, the mutations in the RBD portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, rules out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2."

team explored two viable hypotheses. First, that the natural selection occurred in an animal host before the virus was transmitted to humans. The team explains that although samples of coronaviruses in bats and pangolins have shown similar genomes, none of them fit perfectly just yet.

"Although no animal coronavirus has been identified that is sufficiently similar to have served as the direct progenitor of SARS-CoV-2, the diversity of coronaviruses in bats and other species is massively undersampled," the researchers write.

The second hypothesis is that the natural selection happened in humans - after the virus was transmitted from an animal host.

"The second scenario is that the new coronavirus crossed from animals into humans before it became capable of causing human disease," director of the National Institute of Health, Francis Collins expla...

"Then, as a result of gradual evolutionary changes over years or perhaps decades, the virus eventually gained the ability to spread from human-to-human and cause serious, often life-threatening disease."

Although we don't yet know which of the two hypotheses is correct, the researchers think that more evidence might tip the scales in favour of one or the other - but we'll have to wait for that research to be done.

Citations:

1. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-new-coronavirus-could-have-been-pe...

2.  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9

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