evidence: "Based on analysis of multiple, very short regions of proteins in the novel coronavirus, the bioRxiv paper claimed that the new coronavirus may have acquired these regions from HIV," said Arinjay Banerjee, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in virology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada who has extensively studied coronaviruses. [...] Essentially, the scientists found that yes, there are some additions in the nCoV coronavirus originating in Wuhan that other coronaviruses don’t have, which are similar to pieces of sequence found in HIV. But, the kicker here is that these pieces of genetic code are also found in countless other viruses and there’s no reason to believe they specifically came from HIV, at all. [...] But despite the removal, the pre-print paper has stimulated a heap of discussion about HIV and coronavirus. Many people have asked on social media why, if coronavirus does not have pieces of HIV in it, HIV drugs are being used in some cases to treat the virus, with preliminary evidence that they, and other anti-viral drugs appear to be working in some cases.