Speculations rise anew that COVID-19 was “lab-made” in Wuhan

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The US intelligence discovered that three Wuhan laboratory doctors contracted the COVID-19 in November 2019, sparking speculations that the virus was “humanly made.”
• Former President Donald Trump’s officials at that time ditched the report given the weak evidence.
• A Wuhan expert said that the report was a “total lie.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence found out that three doctors from the Wuhan Institute of Virology started developing COVID-19 symptoms and were hospitalized in November 2019, fueling another round of speculations that the novel coronavirus originated in a lab.

The news outlet revealed that a State Department report was released prior to former President Donald Trump’s departure. The White House officials, though, disregarded the news given the weak evidence.

Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans told NBC News in March that the illness exhibited by the lab workers could be just a seasonal ailment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) sent a team to Wuhan early this year to probe the origin of the virus. After spending a month, the researchers concluded that the virus had likely emanated from bats and was transferred to humans.

The group said that a virus leakage was “extremely unlikely.”

The WHO admitted that it does not hold all pertinent information regarding the origin of the coronavirus. The lack of knowledge about the advent of COVID-19 has led experts to think that the virus’ origin could possibly be “humanly made.”

China has repeatedly rebuked allegations that the coronavirus had emanated from a Wuhan lab, as the facility did not issue any details regarding its research on the disease. 

Speaking with the Journal, the National Security Council said that the Biden White House has queries about tracing the roots of the virus and noted that all pertinent ideologies should be validated by the WHO.

“We’re not going to make pronouncements that prejudge an ongoing WHO study into the source of SARS-CoV-2… As a matter of policy we never comment on intelligence issues,” the agency’s representative said.

Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory Institute director Yuan Zhiming told the Global Times on Monday that the Journal’s report was a total hoax.

“Those claims are groundless. The lab has not been aware of this situation [sick researchers in autumn 2019], and I don’t even know where such information came from,” Zhiming said.

Experts believed that the COVID-19 started spreading in November 2019.

Source: Business Insider