In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many scientists, led by EcoHealth Alliance executive Peter Daszak were quick to shun the Wuhan lab leak theory, which posited that the coronavirus had been a result of virus weaponization studies that had been mishandled in China. An investigation by the World Health Organization earlier this month found that it was "highly unlikely" that such a lab leak would occur.
But now, with U.S. intelligence reports hinting at Wuhan researchers getting sick with COVID-like symptoms as early as November 2019, another investigation, under the Biden administration, is underway to uncover the truth about the virus' origins. And China's "bat woman" Dr. Shi Zhengli isn't too happy about it.
According to the New York Times, some scientists believe that Dr. Shi's "risky experiments" with bat coronaviruses that were conducted at Wuhan Institute of Virology may have been the source of COVID-19, which has taken the lives of 3.81 million people worldwide to date. Twenty-four scientists from the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Japan, led by Jamie Metzl, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, have come together to openly call for an unbiased investigation into the Wuhan lab leak theory, Reuters reported in April. Dr. Shi appears to have felt the pressure to disprove the theory.
"How on earth can I offer up evidence for something where there is no evidence?" Dr. Shi said angrily during what the NYTimes called a "brief, unscheduled conversation." China's "bat woman" added in a text message, "I don't know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist."
The NYTimes report added that in a "rare interview over email," Dr. Shi called the allegations of the Wuhan lab leak theory and the report that several Wuhan scientists had fallen ill in November as baseless. She insists that the Wuhan lab where she works is not the source of COVID-19. However, China's refusal to allow international investigators beyond the lab's deepest corridors make it difficult to believe Dr. Shi's claims, especially when the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab is known to be working on bat coronaviruses.
As China continues to face mounting pressure from international leaders and governments to open up their doors and support an unbiased investigation into the Wuhan lab leak theory, Dr. Shi appears to have bought them some time with her denial. Red State argues that despite the Chinese Communist Party's affinity for secrecy and control, transparency must still be demanded of them. Especially when people like Dr. Shi are complicit in hiding the truth about the virus that caused a global pandemic.
Most recently, a Chinese defector had provided information to U.S. investigators about the Wuhan lab leak theory, which was confirmed by U.S. intelligence. China may be growing anxious that their cover will soon be blown by Western investigators. The Wuhan lab leak theory regained traction this year for a reason and that reason are the clues that point to how Wuhan scientists are truly engaged in the development of deadly, more dangerous viruses. In fact, it has been reported on by the media in the last decade.
In 2015, Vice ran a story on how scientists have "created a hybrid version of a virus that could be the world's next pandemic, a 'SARS 2.0'" through gain of function research. It has raised ethical questions, with Paris Pasteur Institute virologist Simon Wain-Hobson offering an ominous warning: "If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory."
Dr. Ralph Baric, an epidemiology professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill who worked with China's "bat woman" in studying coronaviruses said that the new "highly pathogenic" virus that they were studying "grew equally well to SARS in human cells. It resisted all vaccines and immunotherapy, too." His statements confirm what Dr. Shi denies: that coronavirus studies were in fact being conducted at the Wuhan lab.
Interestingly, back in 2017, prior to former President Donald Trump's presidency, Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose National Institutes of Health funded the EcoHealth Alliance which in turn granted funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for gain of function experiments, predicted that the then-new Head of State will "no doubt" be faced with a "surprise infectious disease outbreak."
All of these details seem to indicate that COVID-19 didn't just accidentally happened., and that the pandemic wasn't a surprise.
