Push Admin

Chinese scientist at center of virus controversy denies lab leak theory

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<p>WASHINGTON - The Chinese scientist at the center of theories that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a leak from her specialized lab in the city of Wuhan has denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster.</p><p>&quot;How on earth can I offer up evidence for something where there is no evidence?&quot; Dr Shi Zhengli told the New York Times in rare comments to the media. </p><p>&quot;I don&#x27;t know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist,&quot; she told the US daily.</p><p>US President Joe Biden last month ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the origin of the pandemic, including the lab leak theory. </p><p>The leak hypothesis had been floated earlier during the global outbreak, including by Biden&#x27;s predecessor Donald Trump, but was widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory.</p><p>But it has gained increasing traction recently, fueled by reports that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in 2019 after visiting a bat cave in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.</p><p>Shi is an expert in bat coronaviruses, and some scientists have said she could have been leading so-called &quot;gain-of-function&quot; experiments in which scientists increase the strength of a virus to better study its effects on hosts.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/06/10/21/thousands-wild-animals-sold-wuhan-markets-covid19-origin">Thousands of wild animals sold in Wuhan markets months before COVID-19 outbreak -report</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/05/30/21/why-scientists-are-concerned-about-leaks-at-biolabs">Why scientists are concerned about leaks at biolabs</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/02/22/21/i-was-the-australian-doctor-on-the-whos-covid-19-mission-to-china-heres-what-we-found-about-the-origins-of-the-coronavirus">I was the Australian doctor on the WHO&#x27;s COVID-19 mission to China. Here&#x27;s what we found about the origins of the coronavirus</a></li></ul><p>According to the New York Times, in 2017 Shi and her colleagues at the Wuhan laboratory published a report on an experiment &quot;in which they created new hybrid bat coronaviruses by mixing and matching parts of several existing ones — including at least one that was nearly transmissible to humans — in order to study their ability to infect and replicate in human cells.&quot;</p><p>But in an email to the paper, Shi said her experiments differed from gain-of-function experiments since they did not seek to make a virus more dangerous. Instead they were trying to understand how the virus might jump across species.</p><p>&quot;My lab has never conducted or cooperated in conducting GOF experiments that enhance the virulence of viruses,” she said.</p><div><strong>jh/st/</strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1636512" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>WASHINGTON - The Chinese scientist at the center of theories that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a leak from her specialized lab in the city of Wuhan has denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster.</p>

WASHINGTON - The Chinese scientist at the center of theories that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a leak from her specialized lab in the city of Wuhan has denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster.