With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to spread around the globe, people are panicked, and they’re looking for answers and explanations. One wild theory that has made its way around the web is that the virus came from space.
Spoiler alert: The virus did not come from space.
Recently, Chandra Wickramasinghe, known for his work in astronomy and astrobiology, spread the idea that the virus was living on a comet and a piece of that space rock may have fallen to Earth during a brief fireball event over China in October 2019. He further implied that comets carrying viruses may have caused outbreaks in the past as well.
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In the past, Wickramasinghe has asserted that another disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) also came from space. He even co-wrote a book with Fred Hoyle in the 1970s called “Diseases from Space” and, for decades, has tried to prove that diseases like SARS or influenza have come from space.
However, scientists have rebuked Wickramasinghe’s suggestions that any such illness might have extraterrestrial origins, and his ideas have largely been considered pseudoscience or “bad science.”
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