CHINA’S own former government scientist has admitted the Wuhan lab leak theory should not be ruled out – sparking fury from Beijing.
Professor George Gao, the former chief of China’s Centre for Disease Control, played a key role in the efforts to trace the mystery origins of Covid – and has now said scientists should “suspect anything”.
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Questions are still raging over whether Covid leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China – high security lab specialising in coronaviruses – during chilling bat tests.
Evidence of a lab leak has been piling up over the last three years as scientists, researchers and governments hunt for answers and step forward with evidence.
Both China and the lab have furiously denied any allegations.
But China’s own former government scientist has now come forward and said nothing should be ruled out over the origins of Covid.
Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 podcast Fever: The Hunt for Covid’s Origin, Professor Gao said: “You can always suspect anything. That’s science.
“Don’t rule out anything.”
He added: “We really don’t know where the virus came from… the question is still open.”
Professor Gao retired from the CDC last year after playing a top role in the pandemic response and efforts to find the origins of the virus.
He would have had access to top secret government information on the outbreak of Covid.
And he said a formal investigation into the Wuhan Institute of Virology was carried out by a government department.
The government scientist claimed the “lab was double-checked by the experts in the field”.
Professor Gao admitted he had not seen the result of the probe – but “heard” the lab was given a clean bill of health.
“I think their conclusion is that they are following all the protocols,” he said.
“They haven’t found (any) wrongdoing.”
It marks the first acknowledgement of an official government probe into the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
But Beijing hit back at the Professor Gao’s comments – claiming the lab leak theory “has no scientific basis”.
The Chinese Embassy in the UK told the BBC: “The so-called ‘lab leak’ is a lie created by anti-China forces.
“It is politically motivated and has no scientific basis.”
The lab leak theory resurfaced in February after the FBI’s director said it was where the virus “most likely” originated.
Yet there’s still no consensus among US intelligence agencies on the origins of Covid.
Many experts and intelligence officials suspect bungling scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology accidentally spread Covid during so-called “gain of function” experiments on bat coronaviruses.
Scientists have also suggested Covid could have escaped from the lab through an infected researcher, improper disposal of waste, or potential breaches in the security at the site.
There was also an “intense” period of “unusual and unexplained activity” in Wuhan in the weeks leading up to the pandemic – raising suspicions about an outbreak and mass sterilisation at the lab.
The city’s airport was locked down for days, there was a blackout period at the lab with no signs of mobile phone activity, and security was massively ramped up at the site.
And fresh intelligence prompted the US Energy Department to conclude an accidental lab leak in China most likely caused the pandemic, Wall Street Journal reports.
The department – which oversees a network of labs in the US working on biological research – made its judgement with “low confidence”.
Some experts and intelligence officials have branded the pandemic as one of the greatest cover-ups in history.
Top former intelligence bosses said the evidence of a lab “accident” is clear to see.
In the months after the pandemic, shocking leaked photos – which were deleted from website of the lab after the virus emerged – revealed a scandalous lack of safety.
One worker admitted being sprayed with bat blood or urine as images showed staff brazenly collecting samples with no face masks or protective suits.
Some scientists didn’t even wear gloves as they entered caves to collect faecal bat swab samples, beaming for the camera and oblivious to the dangers.
And a bombshell study found grotty sewage systems were potentially contaminating canals with toxic waste from the labs.
The biosecurity lapses have led some to question the official Chinese line that the disease was passed from animals to humans.
But China has refused to cooperate with a full-scale probe into the origins and experts claim a cover-up is continuing today.
