Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel fumbled when asked why COVID-19 was found to contain a gene sequence patented by his company three years before the pandemic.
In a Thursday appearance on Fox Business’ “Mornings With Maria”, Bancel was asked by host Maria Bartiromo why a tiny chunk of DNA patented by Moderna was found in COVID-19.
“My scientists are looking into those data to see how accurate they are or not. As I’ve said before, the hypothesis of an escape from a lab by an accident is possible. Humans make mistakes,” Bancel admitted.
A study published in Frontiers in Virology by an international team of researchers found that the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site (FCS) contains genetic code identical to a part of a gene patented by Moderna in 2016.
The study noted the chances of Moderna’s patented gene sequence – called MSH3 – appearing naturally in the coronavirus is 1 in 3,000,000,000,000, meaning that this gene sequence occurring in COVID-19 through natural mutation is essentially impossible.
“The presence in SARS-CoV-2 of a 19-nucleotide RNA sequence encoding an FCS at amino acid 681 of its spike protein with 100% identity to the reverse complement of a proprietary MSH3 mRNA sequence is highly unusual,” the researchers noted.
The important part of the interview is at &min 34 seconds
