New documents back theory that Covid outbreak started in Wuhan lab

[Black Orchid]

Wuhan scientists were studying viral samples of high-risk bat species living in Laos - the country where the closest relative to Covid-19 has been found, leaked documents.

In September, researchers discovered a viral strain called Banal-52 in Laos, which shares 96.8 per cent of its genome with Sars-CoV-2 - boosting claims that the pandemic was caused by a natural spillover event, rather than a laboratory leak.

However, it remained unclear how a bat-borne virus from Laos could have ended up sparking an outbreak in Wuhan, more than 1,000 miles away.

Now, leaked emails between EcoHealth Alliance and US government funders show viral samples were being collected from bats in Laos and sent back to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for study.

The emails, uncovered in a Freedom of Information Request by the US-based White Coat Waste Project, suggest that viral DNA from “bats and other high-risk species” were sent to Wuhan between June 2017 to May 2019.

Before Banal-52 was found, the closest relative to Covid-19 was discovered in cave bats in Yunnan, China, where EcoHealth Alliance had also been looking for viruses and sending samples back to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The genetic sequences collected from both Yunnan and Laos were kept in an online database at the Wuhan institute. However, that was removed in September 2019, leaving experts unsure of exactly what strains were studied at the lab.

Viscount Ridley, co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, said the emails added more weight to the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan.

Speaking at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, the peer said: “Banal-52 is not close enough to be the progenitor, it's still not the smoking gun, but it's pretty good. So maybe this virus started in Laos, not China. Interesting possibility.

“But we got a leak of a document showing that the EcoHealth Alliance was sampling bats in Laos.

“They say in the document that because it would be complicated to come back and ask the US Government for permission to give some of the grant to a Laotian lab, they’d like to send all these samples to a lab that can analyse it for them. It was in a place called Wuhan.

“So the outbreak happened in a city with the world’s largest research programme on bat-borne coronaviruses, whose scientists had gone to at least two places where these Sars-CoV-2-like viruses live.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ne ... np1taskbar

[Bobby]

Those dirty Chinese with their disease spreading all over the world.

[Prime Minister for Canyons]

Still not really a smoking gun.

[Bogan]

We can not say that Brian Laundry murdered Gabby Petito because the police did not find a smoking gun.

[Prime Minister for Canyons]

We can not say that Brian Laundry murdered Gabby Petito because the police did not find a smoking gun.

Pointless rant there Bogan.

[Bogan]

This is a debate site, PMC. Try writing 300 words telling our readers why you disagree with my opinion, and then submit a reasoned argument giving your opposing view.

If you can't manage that, then what are you doing on this site? If all you can manage are sneery one liners, then I think you are just a troll who should be removed.

[Black Orchid]

Bogan's post was absolutely nothing like a rant.

[Prime Minister for Canyons]

Bogan's post was absolutely nothing like a rant.

Was bloody pointless though

[Prime Minister for Canyons]

This is a debate site, PMC. Try writing 300 words telling our readers why you disagree with my opinion, and then submit a reasoned argument giving your opposing view.

If you can't manage that, then what are you doing on this site? If all you can manage are sneery one liners, then I think you are just a troll who should be removed.

How about adding 300 words stating evidence for your opinion.

[Bogan]

No worries. You first.