Ministers ‘no longer discounting’ theory coronavirus leaked from Chinese lab after staff ‘sprayed with animal blood’
BRITISH ministers are “no longer discounting” the theory that coronavirus originated after leaking from a Chinese bio research lab in Wuhan, according to reports.
Senior sources have reportedly admitted while the “balance of scientific advice” is that the virus originated naturally, a leak is also being considered by security services.
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Theories about the origins of coronavirus being linked to a lab in Wuhan have been batted around since the early days out of the outbreak.
One member of Cobra, the emergency committee led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said security services are now considering a possible leak, reports .
The source added however they did not dispute the virus was “zoonotic” - meaning it originated in animals.
Chinese officials have previously attempted to dismiss claims of a leak as "internet rumours".
The government source’s comments come as pressure ratchets up on China to come clean over the outbreak.
More than 1.2 million people have been infected worldwide, and almost 65,000 people have been killed during the pandemic.
The member of Cobra, which receives classified briefings from British intelligence, said: “There is a credible alternative view [to the zoonotic theory] based on the nature of the virus.
“Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan. It is not discounted.”
Downing Street has said it “does not recognise” the claims made by the source.
Some unfounded conspiracy theories circulated worldwide have claimed coronavirus is a kind of man-made bioweapon, but there is no evidence of this.
Wuhan is home to the Institute of Virology, the most advanced laboratory of its type in mainland China.
The £30million institute is just ten miles from the wildlife market which is believed to have been at the centre of the outbreak.
Scientists at the institute were the first to link the new coronavirus to bats.
The state-run People’s Daily newspaper also boasted in 2018 that the lab was capable of conducting experiments with “highly pathogenic microorganisms”.
Unverified local claims have suggested workers at the lab became infected after being sprayed with blood, and then carried in infection into the local population.
The city also has a second lab - the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control (WCDC), which is just three miles from the market - which is also believed to have carried out virus experiments on animals.
Video emerged last week of a Chinese scientist catching bats for viral experimentation at the WCDC.
The conventional wisdom is however still that the virus passed from bats to another animal and then to humans at one of Wuhan’s so-called wet markets.
Following the coronavirus outbreak, China has issued new laws that call for facilities to ensure “biological safety” and improve management of viruses.
A leak from a Chinese lab led to an outbreak of Sars that killed one person and infected nine others in 2004.
The Chinese government admitted the leak was down to negligence and that five officials were punished.
China has been accused of attempting to cover-up the initial outbreak as the virus took hold in the city of Wuhan.
A doctor who first warned about the virus was threatened by police, and then last month Chinese officials suggested the US military may have been responsible for coronavirus.
China now claims it has weathered the virus storm, and yesterday mourned victims with a three minute silence as it positions itself as a world leader amid the pandemic.
CHINA CORONAVIRUS TIMELINE
Coronavirus originated in Chinese city of Wuhan before spreading around the world as a pandemic.
- December 31 - China alerts the World Health Organisation (WHO) to an unknown virus in Wuhan
- January 7 - WHO offcials identifiy the new virus as its linked to a seafood market
- January 11 - China announces its first death from the virus
- January 13 - The first case is reported outside China with a case in Thailand
- January 23 - Wuhan is placed under qurantine
- February 9 - Death toll in China surpasses Sars outbreak at 811
- February 11 - Coronavirus is dubbed Covid-19 by WHO
- February 18 - China's daily infection figures drops below 2,000 for first time
- March 11 - WHO declares outbreak a global pandemic
- March 18 - No new cases reports in China for first time since start of outbreak
- March 25 - China begins to relax quaratine restrictions on Wuhan and Hubei province
- March 31- US death toll surpasses China
- April 1 - China admits to unreported asymptomatic cases
- April 2- Global case count surpasses one million
- April 4 - China holds three minutes of silence to mark the dead
In a letter to the Mail on Sunday responding claims China would face a “reckoning” from Britain over the outbreak, the Chinese embassy hit back - but declined comment on the lab origin theories.
Chinese embassy official Zen Rong said: “Such reports completely disregard the tremendous efforts and huge sacrifice of China and its people, and deny China's significant contribution to global public health and safety.
“China wasted no time in identifying the virus's pathogen, sharing the genetic sequence with the World Health Organisation, taking the most effective, strict and comprehensive measures to contain the spread of the disease, sharing experience with other countries in need, and providing assistance to more than 120 countries, including the UK, and to four international organisations.”
In a statement, an embassy spokesman added: “There has been no scientific or medical conclusion yet on the origin of Covid-19, as relevant tracing work is still underway.
“The WHO has made repeated statements that what the world is experiencing now is a global phenomenon, the source is undetermined, the focus should be on containment and any stigmatizing language referring to certain places must be avoided.”
Questions loom large of the origins of the outbreak, and whether or not the Communist Party have been truthful over their death toll.
Biosecurity researcher Richard Ebright, a professor at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, said the coronavirus behind the pandemic was 96.2 per cent similar to a bat virus discovered by the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2013 and studied at the WCDC.
He said: “Bat coronaviruses are collected and studied by laboratories in multiple parts of China — including Wuhan Municipal CDC and Wuhan Institute of Virology.
"Therefore, the first human infection also could have occurred as a laboratory accident."
China’s top virologist on bat-borne viruses, Shi Zhengli, has sworn on her life that virus did not leak from her lab in Wuhan.
She blamed the virus has being spread by “nature punishing the human race for keeping uncivilized living habits”.
The researcher has told those claiming the virus came from her lab to “shut their stinking mouths”.
But she previously admitted she had “lost sleep” fearing the virus may have leaked from the research facility.
Politicians in both the United Kingdom and United States have previously urged China to be more open about what it knows about the coronavirus.
Writing in the Telegraph last month, Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee called for greater transparency from China.
Mr Ellwood, a former captain in the British Army, said it would “irresponsible” to outright blame the Chinese military – but said his job requires he understands “threats facing the UK”.
He wrote: “I would like to know more about the Chinese army’s [lab], coincidentally located a stone's throw from where the latest outbreak began.”
He added: “Successive US administrations have long believed that a number of countries, including China, maintain active biological programmes.
“But without greater Chinese transparency we cannot be completely sure. China’s immediate response to the outbreak in Wuhan was to squash the story.
“The Chinese doctor who first raised the alarm was obliged publicly retract his comments and charged with ‘rumour mongering’.”
'WORST COVER-UP IN HISTORY'
US senator Tom Cotton also suggested that the virus may have come from a research lab and also called for transparency from China.
On Wednesday, he told the Daily Caller : "The reason I have raised these questions from the very beginning is because of China’s statements and their actions
“After concealing the virus for many weeks in December and then minimizing its severity for most of January, they then peddle an origin story about the food market in Wuhan.”
“Given their dishonesty and the proximity of these labs, which we know were working with coronaviruses, it is only reasonable and responsible for us to ask the question and demand the answers.”
US President Donald Trump has even raised questions over China's official account with regards to the death toll - but has also praised their handling over the outbreak.
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US congressman Michael McCaul accused China of the “one of the worst cover-ups in human history” last month while speaking on Fox News.
He accused the Communist Party of a “systematic whitewash” and called for an international investigation to “hold the Chinese government to account”.
Mr McCaul, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “Now we have a global pandemic that originated out of Wuhan.
“They allowed millions of people to come to Wuhan to celebrate their Spring festival.
“Five million of them leading the area and traveling domestically and abroad – they went into laboratories and shut them down – destroyed laboratory samples and they detained eight of the doctors trying to speak the truth about what really happened in Wuhan.”
In a statement, the Wuhan Institute of Virology said the conspiracy reports had “received close attention from all walks of life” and “caused great harm to our research staff on the front line of scientific research” back in February
Lab chiefs said staff had been working around the clock since the end of 2019 to trace the source of the coronavirus and improve detection rates - adding the theories "seriously interfered" with their efforts.
Despite the speculation however, the World Health Organisation praised China and President Xi Jinping for their handling of Covid-19 back in February.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “The logic doesn’t support the idea [of a cover up]. It’s wrong to jump to conclusions.”
He added: "Nobody knows for sure if they were hiding [anything]."
MOST READ IN NEWS
Half the world’s population are now in lockdown as governments attempt to slow the spread of the virus.
Britain yesterday suffered its deadliest day as 708 were confirmed dead - raising the total to 4,353.
And as the UK bathes in sunshine this weekend sparking fears of the virus spreading, The Queen is due to address the nation tonight at 8pm.
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