The idea that SARS-CoV-2, the virus liable for COVID-19, could have come from a Wuhan laboratory has once more resurfaced after a top Chinese scientist openly addressed the concept in what appeared to be the primary admission that the Chinese government did consider its possibility at one point.
Professor George Gao, the previous head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), disclosed within the BBC Radio 4 podcast “Fever: The Hunt for COVID’s Origin” that the Chinese government did not likely dismiss the concept the virus could have come from a laboratory in Wuhan.
“The federal government organized something,” Gao said before noting that the Chinese CDC was not tapped to get entangled. He then confirmed that authorities investigated the Wuhan Institute of Virology, considered one of China’s top national laboratories, since it was known to be studying coronaviruses for years.
“That lab was double-checked by the experts in the sphere,” Gao was quoted as saying by the BBC. “You may all the time suspect anything. That is science. Don’t rule out anything.”
The internationally respected virologist admitted that he didn’t see the official results of the investigation, but he heard that the lab received a clean bill of health.
“I believe their conclusion is that they’re following all of the protocols. They have not found [any] wrongdoing,” he said.
Gao was on the forefront of China’s response to the general public health emergency since he served because the CDC chief until July 2022. He’s now the vice chairman of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, per The Guardian.
The COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared over by the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 5. Nevertheless, the origins of the virus proceed to baffle scientists.
The overall notion was that SARS-CoV-2 got here from bats. Nevertheless, there is not any evidence to prove this yet. It is also unclear how the virus was transmitted to humans and the way it evolved right into a zoonotic disease.
In March 2021, WHO researchers released a report after conducting a research visit to Wuhan, saying that the lab leak theory was “extremely unlikely,” in line with The Guardian.
The Chinese government has openly dismissed the speculation that SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from considered one of the country’s laboratories, declaring such theory “false and erroneous.”
Gao reiterated that even China is clueless about where the virus really began or got here from. “We actually do not know where the virus got here from… the query remains to be open,” he said.
Published by Medicaldaily.com