There has been much to debate a to where the COVID-19 pandemic truly originated, and while the lab-leak theory was once labeled “conspiracy theory,” after this study there may be no more denying it.

The new research found that the virus has a telltale “fingerprint” meaning it had to come from a lab.

Mathematical biologist Dr. Alex Washburne and colleagues Valentin Brutte and Antonius VanDongen published their research in a preprint that finds “a high likelihood that SARS-CoV-2 may have originated as an infectious clone assembled in vitro.”

According to the researchers, the virus contains an “endonuclease fingerprint”, which is in addition to previous evidence that the virus has a Furin Cleavage Site – which typically only happens in a man-made virus.

Dr. Washburne adds, “We find no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 being a bioweapon (on the contrary, this looks like an accident).”

Professor Francois Balloux, a top researcher in the field, said that “This is an important piece of work. To me, it looks solid both conceptually and methodologically. I was given advance warning and was able to replicate the key findings. To the best of my knowledge, I confirm the reported patterns are genuine.”

Washburne wrote that the intent of the study was to find the true origin of the virus, rather than settle for the Wuhan wet market lie.

“We examined whether SARS-CoV-2 was synthesized in a lab. We studied a common method for synthesizing coronaviruses (CoVs) in the lab. This method was thought to not leave a fingerprint. We found the fingerprint. That fingerprint is in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.”

Washburne adds that the virus contains a number of key indicators to suggest it was created using a popular DNA assembly method known as “golden gate assembly.”

“Testing this from multiple angles, we could not reject the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 has a synthetic origin. Each test also decreased the odds of SARS-CoV-2 having a natural origin,” the doctor states.

Washburne concludes, “Making chimeric viruses in vitro carries risks. We encourage transparency from researchers studying CoVs in Wuhan. We strongly encourage global coordination on biosafety.”

“We encourage open, civil and compassionate discourse on this important topic. This pre-print was not rushed. It was reviewed by many colleagues, truly world experts. We thank them all immensely for their feedback. This has been an incredible project. Yet, for obvious reasons, this is the saddest paper I’ve ever written.”

While this study exposes that COVID-19 did in fact come from a lab, it is rather concerning considering that similar gain-of-function experiments are still being conducted to this day – such as the new strain created by Boston University that has an 80% mortality rate.