Scientists in Wuhan working alongside the Chinese military were combining the world’s most deadly coronaviruses to create a new mutant virus when the Covid pandemic began, a report claimed. Investigators believe Chinese scientists were running a covert project of dangerous experiments, which caused a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and started the Covid outbreak, The Sunday Times reported.
The report is based on hundreds of documents, including previously confidential reports, internal memos, scientific papers and email correspondence.
“It has become increasingly clear that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was involved in the creation, promulgation, and cover-up of the Covid-19 pandemic,” one of the investigators said adding that there is no published information on the work is because it was done in collaboration with researchers from the Chinese military, which was funding it. China is pursuing bioweapons, the investigators believe.
Risky experiments on coronaviruses
The Wuhan Institute of Virology started hunting the origins of the Sars virus in 2003 and was engaged in risky experiments on coronaviruses it gathered from bat caves in southern China. The findings were made public initially. In 2016, researchers found a new type of coronavirus in a mineshaft in Mojiang in Yunnan province similar to Sars. China did not report these deaths but the virus found then are now recognised as the only members of Covid’s immediate family. They were then transported to the Wuhan Institute and the work of the scientists became classified.
The report also pointed out that over a dozen investigators were given access to “metadata, phone information and internet information” from intercepts collected by the US intelligence services. US State Department investigators said, “Despite presenting itself as a civilian institution, the United States has determined that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.”
