On Feb. 19, 2020, public health experts signed a public statement 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 SARS-CoV-2 "and they overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife," the statement reads, citing nine scientific studies.
A detailed computational analysis of
the coronavirus conducted by five researchers in March found that its
genetic makeup showed no signs of alteration. The ability of the virus
to bind to human cells is most likely the result of natural selection in
an animal host or in humans after the virus jumped from animals.