No. Japanese Nobel Laureate Professor Tasuku Honjo did not say Coronavirus was made in Wuhan Lab... Here is the truth…

The novel Coronavirus has affected all parts of the world with over 3 million contracting the deadly virus as per latest information and accounting for more than two hundred thousand deaths to date. (Source: worldsmeter.info)

Wuhan Bio-safety Laboratory located in Wuhan, where the outbreak of this pandemic started, was one of the most highly talked about topics by international observers as well as social media enthusiasts, ever since the start of the pandemic in China.

In this scenario, a viral social media post claiming Japanese Nobel Laureate Professor Tasuku Honjo has given a statement to media stating that Coronavirus was “unnatural” and manufactured in a Wuhan laboratory where he had worked for 4 years, is being shared among many WhatsApp users. The claim has also been translated into many languages and was shared in Sinhala language as well.

The following is an extract from viral post in Sinhala

“කොරෝනා ගැන තවත් කතාවක්........

ජපානයේ නොබෙල් ත්‍යාගලාභී වෛද්‍ය මහාචාර්ය වෛද්‍ය ටසුකු හොන්ජෝ අද පවතින කොරොන වයිරසය ස්වාභාවික එකක් නොවන බව පවසමින් සංවේදීතාවයක් ඇති කළේය.
"එය ස්වාභාවික නම්, එය මේ ආකාරයට මුළු ලෝකයටම අහිතකර ලෙස බලපාන්නේ නැත. මක්නිසාද යත්, ස්වභාවධර්මයට අනුව, විවිධ රටවල උෂ්ණත්වය වෙනස් වේ. එය ස්වාභාවික නම්, එය අහිතකර ලෙස බලපානු ඇත්තේ චීනයට සමාන උෂ්ණත්වයක් ඇති රටවලට පමණි ඒ වෙනුවට, එය ස්විට්සර්ලන්තය වැනි රටක ව්‍යාප්ත වෙමින් පවතී, එය කාන්තාර ප්‍රදේශවල ද ව්‍යාප්ත වේ.එහෙත් එය ස්වාභාවික නම්, එය සීතල ස්ථානවල ව්‍යාප්ත වීමට ඉඩ තිබුණද, උණුසුම් ස්ථානවල මිය ගියේය.

සතුන් සහ වෛරස් පිළිබඳව මම වසර 40 ක පර්යේෂණ කර ඇත. එය ස්වභාවික නොවේ. එය නිපදවන අතර වෛරසය සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම කෘතිම වේ. මම චීනයේ වුහාන් රසායනාගාරයේ අවුරුදු 4 ක් සේවය කර ඇත්තෙමි. එම රසායනාගාරයේ සියලුම කාර්ය මණ්ඩලය ගැන මට හොඳ අවබෝධයක් ඇත. කොරොන වයිරස් මතු වූ පසු මම ඔවුන් සියල්ලන්ටම දුරකථන ඇමතුමක් ලබා දී ඇත්තෙමි. නමුත් ඔවුන්ගේ සියලුම දුරකථන පසුගිය මාස 3 තුළ මිය ගොස් ඇත. මේ සියලු විද්‍යාගාර කාර්මිකයන් මියගොස් ඇති බව දැන් වැටහී ඇත.

මේ දක්වා මගේ සියලු දැනුම හා පර්යේෂණ මත පදනම්ව, මට මෙය 100% විශ්වාසයෙන් කිව හැකිය - කොරොන වයිරස් ස්වාභාවික නොවන බව. එය වවුලන්ගෙන් පැමිණියේ නැත. චීනය එය නිෂ්පාදනය කළේය. අද මා පවසන දෙය අසත්‍ය බව ඔප්පු වුවහොත් හෝ මගේ මරණයෙන් පසුව පවා රජයට මගේ නොබෙල් ත්‍යාගය ඉල්ලා අස්කර ගත හැකිය. චීනය බොරු කියන අතර මෙම සත්‍යය කවදා හෝ සෑම කෙනෙකුටම හෙළි වනු ඇත........”

Below is a screenshot of post by Facebook user “Chani Warahena”.

Below is a screengrab of the English version of the narrative shared heavily among WhatsApp users.

“Japan's professor of Physiology or Medicine, Professor Dr Tasuku Honjo, created a sensation in front of the media today by saying that the corona virus is not natural. If it is natural, it wouldn’t have adversely affected entire world like this. Because as per nature, Temperature is different in different countries. If it is natural, it would’ve adversely affected only those countries having same temperature as China. Instead, it is spreading in a country like Switzerland, in the same way it is spreading in the desert areas. Whereas if it were natural, it would have spread in cold places, but died in hot places. I have done 40 years of research on animals and viruses. It is not natural. It is manufactured and the virus is completely artificial. I have come to the conclusion that since USA has all the 5 strains mutating at the same time, and there are millions of infections with some around still not tested, it is obvious, that the huge number of death lends credibility to the CDC of America’s wrong classification of corona virus death in July to December 2019 to Flu diseases. Also a reported leak and closure of Fort Detrick, and strange Coronavirus death spreading in Italy and Iran in November, even before the Wuhan outbreak, lend credibility to the early outbreak from America. I can now said with confidence USA is the source of the original outbreak”

Fact Check

At first, we turned to Google and tried a number of keywords searches including “tasuku honjo”, “tasuku honjo wuhan laboratory” etc. Results for all of those keywords searches did not result in any reputable or verified media organizations reporting the claim going viral on social media. Instead, we found some fact checking organization who had debunked the viral claims as false.

Professor Tasuku Honjo got Nobel prize for Medicine in 2018 along with Professor James P. Allison from the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas according to Nobelprize.org.

In an interview with Nobelprize.org, at the time of accepting his Nobel prize, Professor Tasuku Honjo had mentioned about his areas of specialization as cancer therapy, genomic, immunology, which are quite different from virology.

Professor Tasuku Honjo has worked at Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study (KUIAS) as a deputy director-general and distinguished professor according to Kyoto University website.

Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine - Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine, where Professor Tasuku Honjo has worked as an executive member since 2006 posted his curriculum vita on their website, and it does not include any mention about Wuhan Laboratory in China either

Kyoto University also issued a statement on their website on April 27, 2020 in which Professor Tasuku Honjo had refuted the claims circulating on social media.

Conclusion

According to above investigations, it is clear that Professor Tasuku Honjo had neither made a statement to media recently about Coronavirus and its origins nor had he worked for Wuhan Laboratory in China. Therefore, claim of Professor Tasuku Honjo mentioned Coronavirus was manufactured in Wuhan Lab is false.