The first humans to be infected with COVID-19 were reportedly a group of researchers at a laboratory in Wuhan. This is according to an exclusive by Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag published on Public. The information cites U.S. government sources.
According to these three journalists, several federal government officials assured them that patient zero was one of the scientists working on gain-of-function methodologies at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
These government officials' assertions contradict what Washington has been repeating since the beginning of the pandemic regarding the origin of the virus. Authorities have continuously denied that COVID-19 could have been the result of research in a Chinese laboratory. Nevertheless, in March, Dr. Fauci admitted for the first time that this laboratory theory should be seriously considered.
"According to multiple US government officials..the first people infected by the virus, 'patients zero,' included Ben Hu, a researcher who led..WIV’s 'gain-of-function' research on SARS-like coronaviruses, which increases the infectiousness of viruses." https://t.co/txhIR3bw8o pic.twitter.com/TK12tFvQsQ
— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) June 13, 2023
Researchers without adequate protection
The sources quoted in the exclusive claimed to know the identity of three Chinese researchers who, in November 2019, contracted a disease of the same class as COVID. One of them was Dr. Ben Hu, who at that time tested bats together with a specialist named Shi Zhengli. According to Public, in a Chinese national television report aired in 2017, both scientists can be seen handling elements of the lab without proper protection and isolation.
According to research sources, the Wuhan Institute of Virology had only level 2 protection measures in place, while a virus such as COVID can be transmitted even with level 3 isolation measures.
Dr. Shi Zhengli has faced such accusations in the past. In 2021, she gave an interview to the New York Times, in which she assured that neither she nor the researchers working with her in Wuhan are behind the spread of COVID-19. She maintained that her laboratory did not possess any source of the strain that caused the pandemic and that the accusations are unfounded.
Public's information comes just days after the declassification of the dossiers on the investigation into the origin of COVID-19. After President Biden signed an order in March to release the information held by the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence (ODNI), the report will be presented next Sunday.
