A scientist who claims coronavirus got here from Earth by meteor now says triumphing winds are spreading the disease to the hardest-hit countries.
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology has alleged that the meteor that exploded over China in October released viral particles.
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COVID-19 either fell to Earth or caught up in the stratospheric air current
Wickramasinghe told MailOnline the virus both fell to Earth or got caught up in the higher stratospheric air currents of the Earth.
The unexpected outbreak of a brand new coronavirus could be very probable to have a space connection,' Professor Wickramasinghe instructed The Express in February.
The astrobiologist is a proponent of 'panspermia' - the principle that life is seeded throughout the universe by traveling on meteorites, comets, and area dust.
A meteor was seen blazing like bright fireball flying throughout the sky in Northeastern China at around 12:16 am on October 11, 2019.
The space rock - which reportedly shone so brightly that it made the night sky look light day - is a concept to have disintegrated inside the surroundings.
When asked about the correlation of a single meteoroid sighting with a virus outbreak proved that the former caused the latter, Wickramasinghe said how the phenomenon took place doesn't prove anything.
Professor Wickramasinghe previously claimed that other deadly diseases came from an extraterrestrial source, including the 1918 flu pandemic. He also liked SARS to a 2002 meteorite that exploded over the border of China and Russia.
The professor said there is a shred of growing evidence that announces this DNA came from space and landed on Earth through micro-meteorites.
The sudden outbreak of a new coronavirus is very likely to have a space connection,' Professor Wickramasinghe told The Express in February.
Other scientists debunk Wickramasinghe's claim
Infectious disease experts have debunked Professor Wickramasinghe's claim, however, noting that COVID-19 is just like other regarded coronaviruses.
This, they explained, would advise that the disease transmitted to human beings from animals - not from a recent meteorite fall.
Infectious disorder expert, Dominic Sparkes of University College London, told IFLScience SARS-CoV-2 didn't come from a meteorite since the disease is so closely related to other known coronaviruses.
SARS, according to Sparkes, is the result of bats transferring the virus to civet cats, which transmitted on to humans. At the same time, MERS is known to be passed on to humans from camels.
"It is, therefore, is far less of a leap to assume the closely-related SARS-CoV-2 virus has been passed on to humans in the same way," he said.
According to DailyMail's report, Virologist Ian Jones of the University of Reading said viruses from space is "an old chestnut" that "deserves to be roasted immediately."
Wickramasinghe's argument, according to Jones, detracts from the really detailed work that is currently ongoing to track, cope with, and prevent infection.
