in early 2020, some people began to think that the sars-cov-2 may have been made on purpose in a laboratory at the wuhan institute of virology and released in wuhan like a weapon. when the leader of iran, ayatollah khamenei, said that he did not want the united states to help his country against coronavirus, he named the idea that americans had made the virus on purpose to harm iranains as one of his reasons: "i do not know how real this accusation is but when it exists, who in their right mind would trust you to bring them medication?" said khamenei.