When the COVID pandemic broke out in 2020, the lab leak theory that suggested that the coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was quickly dismissed by global health authorities and governments. The investigation into the Chinese lab also revealed little conclusive results. But now, it appears that the Wuhan lab leak theory has been accepted as "likely" by officials in the U.K.
The Telegraph reported that according to sources, the U.K. government's "privately official view'' is that COVID-19 came from the Wuhan lab. However, officials refuse to speak of it in public.
"I think the official view (within the government) is that it is as likely as anything else to have caused the pandemic. A lot of people like myself think it is more likely," Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a biological counter-terrorism expert and former British Army officer told the media outlet, as reported by CBN News.
"The zoonotic transfer theory (the transmission of a disease from an animal host to a human) just didn't make sense," De Bretton-Gordon added. He remarked that there is a "huge amount of concern" that their belief of COVID's true origins in the lab would come out publicly, but "behind closed doors, most people think it's a lab leak."
De Bretton-Gordon explained that U.K. officials recognize that not everyone will agree to the Wuhan lab leak theory, but that they "must accept it's likely" and ensure that a catastrophic event such as this would never happen again, by establishing policies to prevent it.
In June 2021, The London Times reported that according to British intelligence services, the theory that COVID-19 came from a Wuhan lab was "feasible." A British intelligence officer was quoted saying that there were "pockets of evidence" that pointed to the lab leak theory, as well as "evidence" that points to other theories. But the conclusion was that "Chinese will lie either way. I don't think we will ever know."
At the beginning of 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an investigation into the Wuhan lab, but the study that was concluded on March 29 said that the theory that COVID-19 came from a Wuhan lab was "extremely unlikely," Al Jazeera reported. In August, however, scientist Peter Ben Embarek said in a documentary aired by Danish TV that the lab leak theory may "fit our first hypothesis of direct transmission of the virus from bat to human."
"his is a hypothesis that we consider to be likely," Embarek, a Danish scientist who works for WHO, alleged. A paper published by Owen Dyer in the BMJ in August 2021 also alleged that China had "pressured" the WHO team of investigators to "dismiss" the theory that COVID-19 came from the Wuhan lab.
The paper said that the Chinese media also went into defense, quoting a non-existent "Wilson Edwards" who alleged that there was a U.S. campaign to "pressure WHO into falsely blaming China for the pandemic." Edwards appears to be a fabricated person as per the Swiss embassy in China which said that there were no records of a person by that name or any trace of his scientific publications.
