Luc Montagnier and COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory
2008 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine from France, Luc Antoine Montagnier, recently came in limelight by endorsing COVID-19 conspiracy theory that the virus is man-made. The news had been widely circulated in the media, especially here in India (eg., The Week, The Hindu, and Times of India). Let’s examine the matter.
Montagnier's argument was that the elements of HIV-1, the retrovirus that he discovered back in 1983, can be found in the genome of SARS-Cov 2, the novel Coronavirus. He made this claim during a TV interview with CNews Channel, a well-known French TV channel. He also stated that the elements of “Malaria germ” (=Plasmodium falciparum) can also be seen in the genome of SARS-Cov 2. His quote: “We were not the first since a group of Indian researchers tried to publish a study which shows that the complete genome of this coronavirus [has] sequences of another virus, which is HIV, the virus AIDS.”
In a podcast with “Pourquoi Docteur?” (=Why Doctor?), a well-known French health Podcast, Luc Montagnier affirmed that the virus seemingly escaped in an “Industrial accident” from Wuhan City Laboratory while the Chinese scientists were attempting to develop a vaccine against HIV.
SARS-Cov 2 is an RNA virus like HIV; it is well-known that many viruses integrate pieces of its genome into the host genome in the course of evolution, both in plants and animals. A staggering 43% of the human genome, for instance, contain the so-called Mobile Genetic Element sequences, thanks to the viral infections that our ancestors have had for the last 300,000 years of human evolution. SARS-Cov 2 has an exceptionally large genome, of about 30 kilobases. Mobile genetic elements had been discovered in many viruses with large genomes, including Coronavirus. The paper Montagnier was referring to was the one published by a team from Indian Institute of Technology- Delhi titled “Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag” that was quickly retracted from BioRchiv- the pre-print server, because of serious scientific errors. An article on the whole genome analysis of SARS-Cov 2 published in Nature Medicine recently has concluded the following: “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV 2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.” What Montagnier referred to as “elements” of HIV was short cis-acting elements discovered in the genome of Coronaviruses way back in 2005, which are necessary for genome replication and is shared across many Coronaviruses (in fact, Coronavirus is a well-known family of viruses). If what Montagnier said is true, then the whole family of Coronavirus (originated 10,000 years ago) is lab-made, which obviously is a farcical argument. Many have pointed out this obvious flaw in Montagnier's argument; Prof. Étienne Simon-Lorière of the Institut Pasteur in Paris for instance: “These are very small elements that we find in other viruses of the same family, other coronaviruses in nature. If we take a word from a book and it looks like another word, can we say that one has copied from the other? This is absurd!”
What surprised me the most is that such a ludicrous claim coming from a Nobel Laureate. By the way, Luc Montagnier is a controversial figure, much like James Watson, the discoverer of DNA who lost all his reputations after openly endorsing racism. Montagnier’s Wikipedia article lists several of his pseudoscience endorsements in past; as a prominent anti-vaxxer, a supporter of homoeopathy, and DNA-teleportation, the claim that DNA emits “electromagnetic waves.” As he lost reputation among the peers and the credibility among the scientific community, Montagnier’s worst nightmare came true; his grant applications were overturned by the scientific agencies in Europe, and he was left with no money to pursue his ‘radical’ quackery. In 2010, Science magazine conducted an interview with Montagnier in which he said he is leaving Europe to “escape the intellectual terror.” His quote: “I’m no longer allowed to work at a public institute (in France). I have applied for funding from other sources, but I have been turned down.” (access full-text PDF here).
Earlier, Kelly Brogan has flooded the media as the prominent authority endorsing COVID-19-bioweapon theory. Brogan holds a degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Doctor of Medicine from Cornell University, yet questions even the basic tenets of the germ theory of disease, the currently accepted scientific theory that pathogens cause infectious diseases. World’s media have an inordinate fondness for statements coming from such seemingly “highly intelligent” people from ivy-league universities. What the general public who trust these media gossips miss out is the Critical Thinking- most of us haven't studied it in school anyway (another strong argument why Critical Thinking must be taught in school). For eg., have you heard of a logical fallacy called “argumentum ad verecundiam” (appeal to Authority)? The form of this fallacy goes like this:
According to person 1, who is an expert on the issue of Y, Y is true.
Therefore, Y is true.
Carl Sagan, another Nobelite, famously summarized his nine rules for busting bullshit and pseudoscience, the so-called Baloney Detection Kit in his book: “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark” (published a few months before his death in 1996, free e-book options at archive.org). The third rule is the following:
Arguments from authority carry little weight — “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.
Historically, times of pandemics are the best breeding grounds for post-truth, including fake news and conspiracy theories. For example, during 14th Century Black Death (bubonic plague) epidemic in Europe fuelled fake news among Christians that the Jews were deliberately poisoning the wells and rivers with infectious “miasma,” which lead to the large-scale persecution of Jews. When the HIV virus was discovered in 80s by Luc Montagnier himself, the prominent Conspiracy Theory in the US was that HIV is a man-made virus created in government laboratory by the federal government to wipe-out blacks, and that goat milk is an immune booster to protect from HIV. For a diachronic historical analysis of fake news at the time of global epidemics with insights from scientific research on vulnerabilities and effective strategies to fend ourselves, see my recent YouTube video:
A famous quote from yet another Nobelist, Richard Feynman, summarize it all:
“Never confuse education with intelligence, you can have a PhD and still be an idiot”.
Dr. Felix Bast is a Science writer and an Associate Professor at the Central University of Punjab, India. He can be contacted at felix.bast@gmail.com.
A brief version of this story appeared in The Wire.
