The new coronavirus is not a “laboratory construct” but emerged as a result of natural evolution, according to a report which demolishes conspiracy theories about the origins of the disease.

The virus first emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of December and has since spread rapidly across the globe, with more than 200,000 people in some 170 countries worldwide now infected. Roughly 8,200 people have died.

But fear and misinformation have escalated alongside the pandemic, with the World Health Organization warning that the globe is fighting an “infodemic” as well as an epidemic.

One common myth has been that the new virus, called SARS-CoV-2, was originally made in a laboratory. But in the new study, published in Nature Medicine journal, researchers analysed the genome sequence of the coronavirus and found strong evidence it evolved naturally, probably from a bat or a pangolin.

“Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” the report concludes.

The team analysed two elements of the “spike protein”, which the virus uses to latch onto and invade a human or animal cell. They found that certain features of the protein are so effective at binding to human cells that it had to be the result of natural selection, not the product of genetic engineering.

This result was reinforced by analysis on the “backbone”, or overall molecular structure, of the virus.