Luc Montagnier who discovered HIV died at 89

Luc Montagnier, a French virologist, who discovered HIV died. He was 89.

Luc Montagnier with his team in 1983 identified the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes AIDS. For this discovery, he shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine with colleague Francoise Barré-Sinoussi.

Views on coronavirus

During a 2020 interview with French news broadcaster CNews, he claimed that the coronavirus did not originate in nature and was manipulated. Experts who have looked at the genome sequence of the virus have said Montagnier's statement was incorrect.

Last year, he claimed in a French documentary that COVID-19 vaccines led to the creation of coronavirus variants.