The biology laboratories in Wuhan, China, are now under the microscope in terms of researchers and investigators looking into the strengthening evidence the coronavirus pandemic originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The Chinese claim that the virus came from bats or pangolins in the wet market became one of the early diversions in the obfuscation of the pathogen’s history. A team of Oxford researchers proved China wrong.
The research documents a menagerie of nearly 50,000 animals from 38 species, including badgers and boars, peacocks and pit vipers, traded at animal markets in the Chinese city from 2017 to November 2019.But the team found ‘no evidence’ that a single bat or pangolin was kept at the market, leading them to conclude that these species – frequently blamed for Covid-19 – ‘were not the likely spillover host at the source of the coronavirus’.Chris Newman, from the University of Oxford, told Mailonline: ‘Some of these species are known to host a variety of diseases.’A few have subsequently been identified as competent hosts of Covid-19, but the main suspected spill-over hosts, namely bats and pangolins, were not for sale in these markets.’Our data cannot determine how humans became infected with Covid-19, only that direct contact with pangolins or bats in these markets seems highly implausible.’
But just up the road, the Wuhan Institute of Virology housed bats. Lots and lots of bats.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology kept live bats in cages, new footage from inside the facility has revealed, disproving denials from World Health Organisation investigators who claimed the suggestion was a “conspiracy”.An official Chinese Academy of Sciences video to mark the launch of the new biosafety level 4 laboratory in May 2017 speaks about the security precautions that are in place if “an accident” occurs and reveals there had been “intense clashes” with the French Government during the construction of the laboratory.The video shows bats being held in a cage at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, along with vision of a scientist feeding a bat with a worm.The 10 minute video is titled “The construction and research team of Wuhan P4 laboratory of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences” and features interviews with its leading scientists.The World Health Organisation report investigating the origin of the pandemic failed to mention that any bats had been kept at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and only its annex referred to animals being housed there.“The animal room in the P4 facility can handle a variety of species, including primate work with SARS-CoV-2,” it states.
The video also highlights China’s lack of experience running Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4), a high-level biological containment laboratory.
In the video, Song Donglin, deputy director of the Wuhan BSL-4 lab, says, “China had no prior experience designing or contracting BSL-4 laboratories. There was no prior experience in using and managing autoclave sterilizers nor life-support systems for personnel.”A voiceover states: “Over more than a decade, Shi Zhengli’s research team has collected more than 15,000 bat samples in China and many countries of Africa, searching for the origins of SARS, as well as isolating and characterizing many new viruses.”
Many “scientists” and “experts” have to walk back their accusations about conspiracy theories, including the now-infamous lab collaborator Peter Daszak.
In December, an article in the Independent reported that “samples from the bats were sent to the Wuhan laboratory for genetic analyses of the viruses collected in the field.”Daszak called this false and a conspiracy theory, saying in a since-deleted December tweet, “Important error in this piece. No BATS were ‘sent to Wuhan lab for genetic analyses of viruses collected in the field.’ That’s not how this science works. We collect bat samples, send them to the lab. We RELEASE bats where we catch them!”Simon Boyi Chen, listed as being in the fellowship program in molecular genetic pathology at Stanford Health Care, tweeted in response: “There can be a very big risk for Western scientists to automatically assume that Chinese labs operate by the same practices and standard operating protocols that they do.”Daszak then tweeted back, “This is a widely circulated conspiracy theory. This piece describes work I’m the lead on & labs I’ve collaborated with for 15 years. They DO NOT have live or dead bats in them. There is no evidence anywhere that this happened.”
One has to wonder how many other science-based “truths” and “realities” are neither.
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