Caused by a leak in a Chinese laboratory? The Russian flu in 1977 attracts attention again

Reporter : Li Zhaoxi / Editor : Li Jia / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/06/04/a103134920.html / Direct translation

Image : On 2 September 2019, a laboratory technician from China Beijing Sino Valley Biotechnology Co., Ltd., a company specializing in pet cloning, was working. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

As the traceability investigation of SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus) / COVID-19 (covid) is in full swing, the theory of laboratory leakage has once again become a hot topic of discussion. The 1977 Russian flu  once again attracted people's attention. Many scientists believe that this may be the result of a laboratory leak.

According to the report of American conservative political blog Hot Air on 3 June 2021, scientists studying the DNA of the "Russian flu" influenza virus strain have concluded that it is almost identical to the H1N1 virus strain that caused the influenza in 1949 and 1950. 

In 1977, a flu broke out in northeastern China, which spread to Russia and the rest of the world, eventually killing about 700,000 people worldwide, most of them young people. Because Russia was the first country to report the pandemic to the World Health Organization (WHO), the disease was called "Russian influenza."

In nature, influenza cannot remain unchanged for 27 years during the cycle. Therefore, the fact that the "Russian influenza" is almost the same as the previous virus strains finally leads to the conclusion that the "Russian influenza" may be the result of laboratory leaks or a failed attempt to vaccinate people with live attenuated vaccines.

A research paper published in the British journal Nature in 1978 pointed out that a team of scientists at The City University of New York found that the above-mentioned 1977 virus and the 1950 virus were very similar in the genome as if the evolution of the virus has frozen in time.

A study conducted by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in 1978 is also very explanatory. Their study pointed out that the “Russian influenza” virus mainly affects people under the age of 20, and the reason given is: People over the age of 20  have been exposed to the same virus before, so they have developed immunity.

However, in the same paper, the team rejected the laboratory leak theory with one sentence, that is, there is no "relevant laboratory" for long-term storage or processing of the H1N1 virus.

After discussions with researchers in influenza virus laboratories in the Soviet Union and China, the WHO unanimously ruled out the possibility of laboratory accidents.

However, regardless of the exact cause at the time, most experts now believe that the "Russian flu" of 1977 was caused by a virus that was collected around 1950 and studied in the laboratory, and then was it was accidentally put back into the world. The denials of the Russians, the Chinese, and the WHO were wrong, because the flu virus would never dormant quietly for 27 years, and then suddenly broke out in an unchanged form.