Staff members conduct nucleic acid testing at a novel coronavirus detection lab in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, Feb 22, 2020. (CHENG MIN / XINHUA)
Experts with the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have dismissed theories that the virus that causes COVID-19 was leaked from the lab, saying that no staff member of the institution has ever contracted the virus.
The experts, who requested anonymity, said individuals from the West can present their proof if they have any. They also dismissed as groundless the reports from some media outlets that three workers from the institute had contracted the virus.
In a statement released in May, US President Joe Biden said he had ordered the US intelligence community to redouble its efforts to study the origins of the virus, including exploring the theory of a laboratory accident after media reports blamed the Wuhan lab.
The Chinese experts’ comments came after the National Health Commission released the China part of the report on the WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2 on June 7.
The joint expert panel from China and the World Health Organization, after carefully assessing every possibility, concluded that it is “extremely unlikely” that the virus spread to humans through a laboratory leak, the report said.
The experts tested more than 4,500 samples for research programs that were collected in the second half of 2019 in hospitals in Wuhan, other cities in Hubei province and in other provincial-level areas, and these did not reveal any COVID-19 infections, according to the report.
They also reviewed the cases of more than 76,000 patients who visited medical institutions in Wuhan between Oct 1 and Dec 10 for reasons such as fever and pneumonia of unknown cause. Although 92 cases were considered to be compatible with SARS-CoV-2 infection, subsequent testing and further external multidisciplinary clinical review determined that none was in fact due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Based on the analysis of this and other surveillance data, it is considered unlikely that any substantial transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection was occurring in Wuhan during those two months.
On March 23, 2020, the Wuhan Institute of Virology issued a statement clarifying the institute has never been exposed to COVID-19 before Dec 30, 2019, and a “zero-infection” record has been kept among its staff and graduate students so far.
In an article released June 7 on the Free Press Internet, international affairs columnist Mikhail Morozov concluded that evidence of the Wuhan lab leak theory is groundless, contradictory, and lacks reliable sources, after analyzing articles in a range of media publications.
“Studies proving the man-made nature of the new coronavirus began to appear as if on command,” he said.
“All this suggests that the West tries to use every possibility to accuse China of spreading the infection. Or at least they are using the global tragedy for their own political goals or to divert attention from other theories,” Morozov added.
He explained that, with no reliable evidence, Western officials either completely ignore or purposefully try to divert attention from the theory that the virus could have similarly leaked from a lab in the United Kingdom or the United States.
Answering a foreign correspondent’s question at the regular news briefing on June 9, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the world has long seen some US politicians or media outlets “labeling the virus, seeking stigmatization, spreading unfounded ‘lab leak’ hypothesis, wantonly attacking and smearing the joint report on the study of origins by the China-WHO team of experts, and drawing on the intelligence apparatus to launch investigations”.
Such moves driven by politicization are deviating further away from the purpose of the study of origins.
“We urge the US to immediately halt its political manipulation, step up to its responsibilities, restore origins study to its scientific arena, and give a clear and responsible account of its Fort Detrick and over 200 bio-labs all over the world,” he said.
On June 4, in his reply to a similar question, Wang said: “We hope the US side will follow China’s example, take a scientific and cooperative attitude, invite WHO experts for origin-tracing study in the US, and make a responsible explanation to the international community without further delay on the real situation of more than 200 US biological laboratories around the world, so as to make positive contribution to humanity’s early victory over the pandemic and better capabilities in dealing with public health emergencies in the future.”
Fort Detrick, a site in Maryland that has long been the heart of US biological weapons research, was ordered to close down its germ research operations in August 2019 after two bio-safety breaches involving dangerous pathogens. US authorities cited “national security reasons” for the sudden closure.
It so happened that in August 2019 an inexplicable lung illness supposedly linked with vaping, or smoking e-cigarettes, broke out in regions neighboring Fort Detrick, with clusters of cases in Wisconsin and elsewhere. The military lab at Fort Detrick managed to resume full operations in April.
Xinhua contributed to this report.
