On Tuesday (December 7), veteran politician Subramanian Swamy sparked controversy after he insinuated that India was complicit in kickstarting the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic.
A Twitter account (@Ravinder536R) had tweeted an article by Hindupost on Tuesday, highlighting how virus samples were brought from Vientiane in Laos to Wuhan provinces in China. The report relied on a Spectator article that was published in November this year. “The Spectator article says that scientists found a virus in a horseshoe bat in a cave in Laos in the Vientiane province. Other related viruses of a similar kind were found in Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, and in other parts of China,” read the article.
It further stated, “But Banal-52, the virus that was found in the bat in Laos, was genetically closest to the human Sars-CoV-2 virus. It was even closer genetically than the virus from southern Yunnan called RaTG13. RaTG13 is 96.1% the same as the Sars-CoV-2 while Laos’s Banal-52 is 96.8% the same.” The Twitter handle had tagged Subramanian Swamy and sought for his opinion.
The MP then claimed that bat samples were also sent from Nagaland to Wuhan province in China via the Tata Insitute. Swamy inquired whether such sample transfer made India complicit in the spread of the Wuhan pandemic. “Also Bat Virus samples from Nagaland were brought to Wuhan courtesy Tata Institute. Is India complicit too?” he wrote.
The tweet by Subramanian Swamy is based on a misleading article by The Hindu that was published last year. The Hindu report had claimed that an inquiry was ordered into a study conducted in Nagaland by researchers from the US, China and India on bats and humans carrying antibodies to deadly viruses like Ebola. The report had claimed that the study was under the scanner because two of the twelve researchers involved belonged to the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Department of Emerging Infectious Diseases and that it was funded by the United States Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
What is the truth behind the claims of Subramanian Swamy?
In a public statement, slamming The Hindu for its shoddy journalism, NCBS (National Centre for Biological Sciences) had issued a clarification over the matter. NCBS clarified that no researcher from the Wuhan Institue of Virology was directly involved with the study. NCBS clarified that researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were listed as co-authors only because they supplied reagants critical to the study to Duke-NUS, as is the standard practice for scientific authorship.
It further made it clear that no biological samples or infectious agents were transferred into or out of India, and this study has no connection with Coronaviruses. On the claims made by The Hindu with regards to the funding of the study, NCBS clarified that it is not a recipient of DTRA funds. Duke-NUS receives funding from the DTRA and hence, it finds a mention in the study. It also said that documentation regarding this study is transparently and freely available in the public domain.
This press release is in reference to media reports that grossly misrepresent the facts concerning a study of bats in Nagaland. We have since issued this statement to correct the record, in the public interest. https://t.co/MSeGCSmtSG
— National Centre for Biological Sciences (@NCBS_Bangalore) February 4, 2020
NCBS said that such studies are necessary as bats are a major reservoir of novel zoonotic diseases, which are infectious diseases that can jump from animals to humans. It also urged the media and all stakeholders to only obtain information from reliable and verified sources as the spread of misinformation and panic could be devastating during a global health crisis.
It is notable here that the NCBS comes under the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
Swamy and fake claims
Subramanian Swamy has been quite vocal on several issues and often seeks the limelight by making sensational claims. Recently, he had boasted about receiving information about Chinese incursion in Arunachal Pradesh from MP Tapir Gao. However, Gao soon exposed Swamy’s lies, sharing he had misquoted him to peddle his anti-Modi agenda.
