TheSARS conspiracy theory began to emerge during thesevere acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak inChina in the spring of 2003, when Sergei Kolesnikov,[1] aRussian scientist and a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, first publicized his claim that theSARS coronavirus is a synthesis ofmeasles andmumps. According to Kolesnikov, this combination cannot be formed in the natural world and thus the SARS virus must have been produced under laboratory conditions. Another Russian scientist, Nikolai Filatov, head ofMoscow'sepidemiological services, had earlier commented that the SARS virus was probably man-made.[2][3]
Circumstantial evidence suggests that the SARS virus crossed over to humans fromAsian palm civets ("civet cats"), a type of animal that is often killed and eaten inGuangdong, where SARS was first discovered.[4][5]
Tong Zeng, an activist with no medical background, authored the bookThe Last Defense Line: Concerns About the Loss of Chinese Genes, published in 2003.[6] In the book, Zeng suggested researchers from the United States may have created SARS as an anti-Chinese bioweapon after taking blood samples in China for a longevity study in the 1990s.[6] The book's hypothesis was a front-page report in theGuangzhou newspaperSouthern Metropolis Daily.[6]