No, the Institut Pasteur did not create the SARS-CoV-2 virus and release it in the city of Wuhan to cause the pandemic and implicate the Chinese authorities

New videos have been circulating online since late August claiming to trace the supposedly premeditated history of the COVID-19 pandemic. The information contained in these videos is pure conspiracy and of course false.

• The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was not created by the Institut Pasteur.

• The Institut Pasteur did not release any viruses in the city of Wuhan in China!

• The Institut Pasteur is not a laboratory belonging to the Sanofi pharmaceutical group or its subsidiary Sanofi-Pasteur; it is an independent non-profit foundation.

• Asserting that the Institut Pasteur is planning to enslave and control the global population is utterly false and devoid of all foundation.

• In response to these defamatory claims, and for the first time since its inception, the Institut Pasteur has lodged a complaint.

See the Institut Pasteur's point-by-point response on a dedicated page at pasteur.fr

After becoming aware of this false conspiracy information and its widespread and repeated circulation online and on social media, the Institut Pasteur lodged two complaints for defamation – a first since its inception in 1887.

In addition to strongly refuting these false allegations and clarifying the facts of the situation and knowledge, this was also to denounce the insults and threats to the employees and scientists of the Institut Pasteur and to prevent this from happening again.

We would remind you that if you receive malicious questions, messages or calls following the publication of fake news, or if you notice that an account has been taken over or are led to believe that your social media accounts have been hijacked, you should send an email to menaces@pasteur.fr to report the incident so that it can be dealt with as quickly as possible.