COVID19-Exists | Funwithfacts

Conspiracy Archive

The Coronavirus Conspiracies

Claim: The virus doesn't exist

This is the claim that the virus doesn't actually exist.

Let's just break this down for a moment. Saying that the virus doesn't exist means:

-Sara-Cov-2 doesn't exist

-It isn't the cause of the global pandemic procedures

So how can we verify this exists? We can't see it, it's a virus after all.

So, let's think for a moment. How do we know the flu exists? How do we know the common cold exists? We all know these two things exist, but let's presume someone had never had it before or seen anyone with it. How do we know it exists then?

Let's start with what a genome is. According to the National Institute of Health's Genetics Home Reference:

"A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes. Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism. In humans, a copy of the entire genome—more than 3 billion DNA base pairs—is contained in all cells that have a nucleus."

In other words, it's the specific genetic makeup of an organism.

So why mention this?

I mention this as soon as the virus was detected, Chinese scientists sequenced the genome and shared it online. In a study called "The genetic sequence, origin, and diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2", the study's abstract says:

"Airway epithelial cells from infected patients were used to isolate a novel coronavirus, named the SARS-CoV-2, on January 12, 2020, which is the seventh member of the coronavirus family to infect humans. Phylogenetic analysis of full-length genome sequences obtained from infected patients showed that SARS-CoV-2 is similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and uses the same cell entry receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), as SARS-CoV."

The American Society of Microbiology has described in quite detailed notes the genome sequence of Covid-19.

They write:

"The final genome of sequenced SARS-CoV-2 consists of a single, positive-stranded RNA that is 29,811 nucleotides long, broken down as follows: 8,903 (29.86%) adenosines, 5,482 (18.39%) cytosines, 5,852 (19.63%) guanines, and 9,574 (32.12%) thymines."

Now the next part I don't pretend to understand for a second, but the sequenced genome is available in the National Center for Biotechnology Information's GenBank:

But is there anything else?

Yes, there is. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease has managed to take images of the virus using an electron microscope. I have included some of the actual images here, not artistic renderings, the actual images.

For some context, they write:

"Note that the images do not look much different from MERS-CoV(link is external) (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, which emerged in 2012) or the original SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, which emerged in 2002). That is not surprising: The spikes on the surface of coronaviruses give this virus family its name – corona, which is Latin for “crown,” and most any coronavirus will have a crown-like appearance."

Here's the institute's Flickr gallery for Sars-Cov-2

Here's their gallery for Sars-Cov from 2012

So I have provided the information to show you that Covid-19 does exist, scientists, know the genome, have studied the virus and have seen it with an electron microscope. But does this prove it's infecting people? Well, no. For that, we need more evidence.

Let's analyse what the scientific literature has for us to read.

From The Lancet in mid-February in a study called, "Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China."

It's worth noting that before Sars-Cov-2 became the official name, it was called 2019-nCov.

"All patients with suspected 2019-nCoV were admitted to a designated hospital in Wuhan. We prospectively collected and analysed data on patients with laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection by real-time RT-PCR and next-generation sequencing."

"By Jan 2, 2020, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as having laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection. Most of the infected patients were men (30 [73%] of 41); less than half had underlying diseases (13 [32%]), including diabetes (eight [20%]), hypertension (six [15%]), and cardiovascular disease (six [15%])."

"Common symptoms at onset of illness were fever (40 [98%] of 41 patients), cough (31 [76%]), and myalgia or fatigue (18 [44%]); less common symptoms were sputum production (11 [28%] of 39), headache (three [8%] of 38), haemoptysis (two [5%] of 39), and diarrhoea (one [3%] of 38)."

"2019-nCoV caused clusters of fatal pneumonia with clinical presentation greatly resembling SARS-CoV. Patients infected with 2019-nCoV might develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, have a high likelihood of admission to intensive care, and might die."

"We reviewed clinical charts, nursing records, laboratory findings, and chest x-rays for all patients with laboratory-confirmed 2019-nCoV infection who were reported by the local health authority. The admission data of these patients was from Dec 16, 2019, to Jan 2, 2020."

Here are some graphs they include in their study describing the symptoms of the virus, conditions of the initial patients, and a graph showing the percentages of cases that go into various states.

Does this prove everything?

So Covid-19 does exist, we know the genome, we've seen it, and people have tested positive for that virus in the apparent origin country of the virus.

Our World in Data has put together a chart showing tests performed by countries vs Covid-19 confirmed by testing. I've linked it but also included an image of the chart.

The source of their information is the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

On their page describing how they get their data, they write:

"Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, ECDC’s Epidemic Intelligence team has been collecting the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, based on reports from health authorities worldwide. This comprehensive and systematic process is carried out on a daily basis. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data, this process is being constantly refined. This helps to monitor and interpret the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic not only in the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA), but also worldwide.

Every day between 6.00 and 10.00 CET, a team of epidemiologists screens up to 500 relevant sources to collect the latest figures."

"ECDC receives regular updates from EU/EEA countries through the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS), The European Surveillance System (TESSy), the World Health Organization (WHO) and email exchanges with other international stakeholders. This information is complemented by screening up to 500 sources every day to collect COVID-19 figures from 196 countries.

This includes websites of ministries of health (43% of the total number of sources), websites of public health institutes (9%), websites from other national authorities (ministries of social services and welfare, governments, prime minister cabinets, cabinets of ministries, websites on health statistics and official response teams) (6%), WHO websites and WHO situation reports (2%), and official dashboards and interactive maps from national and international institutions (10%)."

I can't find any way to rate this anything other than false. Scientists have recognised new cases of pneumonia, found it to be from a new virus, sequenced the genome, shared that online, and seen it with an electron microscope.

The virus family it belongs to have been identified, it's effects identified and analysed.

Multiple highly regarded peer-reviewed journals have published studies on the virus, and the European CDC collects data daily from 500 sources over 196 countries.

Either 196 countries, multiple health institutions, multiple peer-reviewed journals and scientists worldwide are all lying in a huge global conspiracy, or the virus actually exists and this conspiracy claim is false. It's the latter.