Original article (in Serbian) was published on 14/2/2024; Author: Stefan Kosanović
Conspiracy theories framing COVID-19 as a biological weapon have resurfaced in Viber groups across Serbia. This time, the basis for these claims is an ordinary email received by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the prominent American epidemiologist, at the pandemic’s outset. The email was sent by a conspiracy theorist who presented Dr. Fauci with supposed evidence that scientists had artificially created the virus. However, the email merely contained a paragraph copied from a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania nearly two decades ago.
In the Viber group “Kovid – biblioteka,” which boasts over 3,200 members, a screenshot of an email was recently shared. This email is purportedly evidence of “biological weapon Covid-19” and was sent to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical advisor to the president of the USA and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, by a certain Adam Gartner at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
This issue is not new; it was reported by colleagues from USA Today a few years back. Nonetheless, the content of this very email continues to be exploited to argue that the virus was artificially created.
So, what’s the truth?
Dr. Fauci received the email from Adam Gartner, a self-proclaimed independent researcher. Gartner admits he is neither a doctor nor a professor, and his website includes a disclaimer advising against using its content for medical advice.
What Adam Gartner sent to Dr. Fauci was essentially a “recipe,” or purported formula, for creating a biological weapon using the coronavirus. However, this same formula appears in a scientific paper by the University of Pennsylvania from 2005. This paper explored the characteristics of the coronavirus, not specifically the novel virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic years later. COVID-19 was triggered by an entirely new coronavirus strain. Prior to this, the world had identified numerous coronaviruses, which had historically led to respiratory epidemics and diseases, most often.
The study from the University of Pennsylvania was published in the aftermath of another epidemic – SARS in 2003. At that time, scientists were investigating methods to inhibit the activation of the SARS-CoV spike protein, aiming for a potential therapeutic approach to the severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by a coronavirus.
Two authors of this study confirmed to USA today that the viral particles utilized in their experiments did not contain the genetic material of the coronavirus, and the materials used were incapable of replication. This means they could not cause infection, thereby rendering the creation of a biological weapon through this experiment impossible.
Paradoxically, conspiracy theorists have seized upon this email as “proof” that the coronavirus was artificially created. Yet, several journalists from prominent American media outlets, including the Washington Post and CNN, accessed it in 2021. Their goal was to investigate and demonstrate how the US’s pandemic leader, Dr. Fauci, navigated the crisis.
In July of that same year, disinformation circulated on social media claiming that Dr. Fauci’s emails had been “leaked” to the public. Among these, conspiracy theorists highlighted the email from Adam Gartner, presenting it as evidence that COVID-19 is a “biological weapon.”
