Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo didn't say the coronavirus wasn't natural!

A chain letter is circulating on WhatsApp with the alleged statements of a Nobel Prize winner about the new coronavirus.

That longer text is said to be largely a direct statement by the Japanese professor Tasuku Honjo, in which he vehemently makes it clear that the new coronavirus was not created naturally, but artificially. He himself worked in Wuhan for years, but can no longer reach his ex-colleagues by phone because they are probably all dead or have been silenced.

This text is:

Prof. Tasuku Honjo, the Japanese Nobel Prize winner in medicine from Japan caused a particular stir today when he said that the coronavirus is NOT natural.

“IF IT WAS NATURAL, IT WOULD NOT HAVE AFFECTED THE WHOLE WORLD IN THIS WAY.

As is natural, the temperature is different in different countries. If it were natural, it would only have a negative impact in those countries that have the same temperature as China. Instead, it is spreading in Switzerland as well as in the desert areas. On the other hand, if it were natural, it would have spread predominantly in cold places and died in hot places.

I have researched animals and viruses for 40 years. It's not natural. It is manufactured and the virus is completely artificial. I worked for 4 years in the biolaboratory of WuXi, 666 Gaoxin Road East Lake, in Wuhan, China. I am very familiar with the entire staff of this laboratory. I spoke to all of them on the phone after the coronavirus emerged. But all of their phones have been dead for 3 months. It is now known that all of these lab workers have either been killed or silenced.

Based on all my knowledge and research so far, I can say with 100% certainty that the coronavirus is not natural. It doesn't come from bats. China made it. If what I say today turns out to be false now or even after my death, the government can strip me of my Nobel Prize. China lies, and this truth will one day be revealed to the world.”

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Which is true

Prof. Tasuku Honjo from Kyoto University, Japan actually received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2018 for his discovery of cancer therapy by inhibiting negative immune regulation.

Which is wrong

„If it were natural, it would only have a negative impact in countries that have the same temperature as China.”

The creator of that false statement (we'll get to that below) seems to have played a little too much " Plague Inc. ", because there you actually have to let a pathogen mutate to a certain temperature zone so that it can spread.

The reality, however, is a little more complicated. The new coronavirus actually does not spread equally quickly everywhere, but this is due to many factors, not just the prevailing climate. Influenza viruses, for example, spread best in cold temperatures, but that doesn't mean you can't get the flu in the summer - you're just less likely to get it.

However, it is not yet known how higher temperatures will affect the spread of SARS-CoV-2; there is no direct data yet . In general, coronaviruses survive for a shorter time at higher temperatures, but it is unclear at which temperatures the new coronavirus is deactivated; it also depends, for example, on air humidity, surface temperatures, etc. - a lot of factors, not all of which are known yet .

“I worked in the biolab (…) in Wuhan, China for 4 years.”

Tasuku Honjo's CV is available on several sites on the Internet, but nowhere can you find that he ever worked in Wuhan or even in China. Since 2005, he has been a professor in the Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine at Kyoto University.

“But he said that, it was on Twitter!”

There was a huge Twitter confusion caused by a fake account. A now deleted account was called @TasukuHonjo , it used a white Twitter bird as its profile picture, the account name was “Human Being”. The place of residence was given as Japan, but the tweets indicated an Indian origin:

The statement that the new coronavirus is man-made also comes from that account; our colleagues at Snopes archived the account:

The account was deleted, but re-emerged elsewhere and spread the same message:

https://twitter.com/HumanBeing38/status/1253613893437587456

Can these statements be found elsewhere?

No .
All searches for those statements in English or Japanese always lead to accounts that only claim that he said that. The most recent interview with Tasuko Honjo dates from the beginning of April and can be found on “ Nikkei Asian Review ”, but even there the alleged statements are not even close to being found.

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Tasuko Honjo himself contradicts the statements

In a statement from Kyoto University, where Tasuko Honjo works, he himself condemns these false claims that are circulating internationally:

„After the pain, economic losses and unprecedented global suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, I am deeply saddened that my name and that of Kyoto University have been used to spread false accusations and misinformation.

This is a time when all of us, especially those of us who put our careers at the forefront of scientific research, must work together to combat this common enemy. We cannot hesitate for a moment in this effort to save the lives of our fellow human beings. At this time, when all our energies are needed to treat the sick, prevent the spread of grief, and plan a new beginning, the spread of baseless claims about the origins of the disease is dangerously distracting. “

Conclusion

The widespread statements that are said to come from Nobel Prize winner Tasuko Honjo are all false and fictitious .