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No need to recalibrate those tinfoil hats: Genetic research has confirmed that the 2019 coronavirus was neither engineered in a lab nor leaked by bio-terrorists.

Using public genome sequence data, scientists have revealed that the virus was instead a result of “natural processes,” according to a new report published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Dr. Kristian Andersen, of the Scripps Research Institute, where the study took place, said that her team “can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes.”

The paper also notes that genomic data made available by Chinese researchers, who began collecting the information shortly after the outbreak occurred, shows that cases have been rising exponentially “because of human to human transmission after a single introduction” into the population.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has counted nearly 180,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, also called COVID-19, and suspect many thousands more undetected patients. Since the outbreak was first reported by doctors in Wuhan, China, in December, almost 7,500 people worldwide have died after contracting the infection.

Anderson and her collaborators found evidence in the virus’ spike-like proteins, which help the infection grab and penetrate animal cells, to determine that they “evolved to effectively target a molecular feature” specific to human cells. The function is so effective, in fact, that they believe only natural selection could have produced such an efficient virus.

The Scripps teams also note that anyone attempting to generate a new coronavirus on their own — in a lab, for instance — would have used a prior coronavirus as a template. But the structure of SARS-CoV-2, they found, was unlike any they had previously encountered in humans, and instead resembled those found in bats and pangolins. Scientists believe the virus may have originated in a bat.

Dr. Josie Golding, epidemics lead at UK-based Wellcome Trust, also told Scripps that their findings are “crucially important to bring an evidence-based view to the rumors that have been circulating about the origins of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) causing COVID-19.”

Golding, who was not involved in the study, added that the results “conclude that the virus is the product of natural evolution, ending any speculation about deliberate genetic engineering.”