Several conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus abound. Researchers authored a study dispelling many of them.

The most popular conspiracy theory is that the virus was engineered in a lab for a biological attack. The academic, research-based study shows otherwise. Dr. Robert Garry, Professor at Tulane University’s School of Medicine, one of the authors of the study, stated the premise of the study was to ascertain the origins of the novel coronavirus. Without a doubt, the virus developed naturally. Dr. Garry states that the virus was not build on the backbone of a previous virus. Further, he believes that the virus is a recombination of a virus found in bats and another virus found in pangolins.

Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, concurs, saying “there is little room to refute.”

Dr. Garry was also able to dispel another error in reporting by noting that the virus did not originate in a fish market in Wuhan, China.