Wuhan lab workers ‘fell ill weeks before Covid emerged’ fuelling leak theory – World News

Three researchers from a Wuhan lab that investigated Covid-19 fell ill just weeks before the virus emerged as a mystery illness, it is claimed.

The workers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were sick enough that they had to go to a hospital for treatment in November 2019, according to a previously undisclosed US intelligence report.

The report, which was revealed by the Wall Street Journal, has fuelled calls for a broader investigation into the theory that the initial outbreak was caused by a leak at the laboratory.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has denied that a leak was to blame, though a group of leading scientists has said the virus’ origin is still unclear and the theory needs to be taken seriously until a rigorous data-led investigation proves it wrong.

Last year, then-US president Donald Trump pushed the theory and claimed he had seen evidence that coronavirus came from the Wuhan lab, without providing any proof.

Covid-19 emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and rapidly spread around the world, infecting more than 167 million people and killing almost 3.5 million so far.

Many countries are currently grappling with devastating second or third waves while others, including the UK, are emerging from lockdowns amid mass vaccination campaigns and the threat of mutant variants.

In early January 2020, Dr Shi Zhengli, known as “Bat Woman” for her research into bat coronaviruses, said she identified the mystery illness as a novel coronavirus, and denied claims of a virus leak.

Some experts have speculated that a virus captured from the wild could have figured in lab experiments to test the risks of a human spillover and then escaped via an infected staff member.

Joe Biden’s top coronavirus adviser recently said he’s “not convinced” the virus developed naturally and has called for further investigation into its origin.

Dr Anthony Fauci said the probe into “what went on in China” needs to continue until investigators “find out to the best of our ability what happened”.

The Wall Street Journal said the US intelligence report gave fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits.

It came on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

A US National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the Journal’s report but said the Biden administration continued to have “serious questions about the earliest days of the Covid-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China.”

She said the White House was working with the WHO and other member states to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic’s origins “that is free from interference or politicisation.”

“We’re not going to make pronouncements that prejudge an ongoing WHO study into the source of SARS-CoV-2, but we’ve been clear that sound and technically credible theories should be thoroughly evaluated by international experts,” she said.

The Journal said current and former officials familiar with the intelligence about the lab researchers expressed a range of views about the strength of the report’s supporting evidence, with one unnamed person saying it needed “further investigation and additional corroboration.”

The United States, Norway, Canada, Britain and other countries in March expressed concerns about the WHO-led Covid-19 origins study, and called for further investigation and full access to all pertinent human, animal and other data about the early stages of the outbreak.

Washington is keen to ensure greater cooperation and transparency by China, according to a source familiar with the effort.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, China’s foreign ministry noted that a WHO-led team had concluded a lab leak was extremely unlikely after a visit in February to the virology institute.

“The US continues to hype the lab leak theory,” the ministry said in response to a request for comment by the Journal.

“Is it actually concerned about tracing the source or trying to divert attention?”

Earlier this month, Dr Fauci was asked at an event held by the Florida journalism school Poynter if he was confident Covid-19 had developed naturally, Fox News reported.

He said: “No, actually. I am not convinced about that.

“I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened.”

Dr Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, added: “Certainly, the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out.

“So, you know, that’s the reason why I said I’m perfectly in favour of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus.”

In the early days of the pandemic, Dr Fauci said the virus likely “evolved in nature and then jumped species’’ rather than being “artificially or deliberately manipulated”.

Earlier this month, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a report claiming there was “significant circumstantial evidence” that a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was to blame.

The report claims the US government “may have funded or collaborated” in the research that led to the leak.

The Republicans wrote: “International efforts to discover the true source of the virus, however, have been stymied by a lack of cooperation from the People’s Republic of China.”

In mid-May, 18 leading scientists said the lab leak theory must be taken seriously.

The scientists wrote in a letter: “More investigation is still needed to determine the origin of the pandemic.

“Theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable.

“We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data.”

The scientists said the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) investigation into the origins of the virus had not made a “balanced consideration” of the theory that it may have come from a laboratory incident.

In its final report, written jointly with Chinese scientists, a WHO-led team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and February said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely” as a cause.

The Donald Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing denies.

A State Department fact sheet released near the end of the Trump administration had said “the US government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illnesses.”

It did not say how many researchers. China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team’s investigators, Reuters reported in February, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.