By Jessica Frank-Keyes
A Wuhan lab leak after deadly coronaviruses were spliced into a mutant superbug may have caused the global Covid-19 pandemic, a shock investigation has claimed.
Chinese scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were running a dangerous undercover programme of experimental bioresearch, the Sunday Times’ Insight team reports.
The revelations come the week the UK launches its official Covid-19 inquiry, with questions over state pandemic preparedness set to take centre stage in the first set of hearings.
US investigators privy to top-secret documents believe the Asian superpower was behind suppressing the work, which has been linked to claims the military is pursuing bioweapons.
Reporters reviewed hundreds of confidential reports, memos, papers and emails obtained since the pandemic began in January 2020 – more than three years ago.
The Wuhan lab began looking into the Sars virus in 2003, received US state funding and collaborated with leading researchers on cutting edge techniques, the paper said.
It conducted risky experiments on viruses from bat caves in southern China – initially publicising its findings in the name of vaccine research – before going dark in 2016.
Authorities hushed up deaths in 2019 linked to a new virus found in a mineshaft in Yunnan province – now known to be the only close ‘relative’ of Covid-19 in existence prior to the outbreak.
US investigators claim classified work on the new bug was to make it more infectious to humans, linked it to the bioweapons creation programme, and said it became Covid-19 and was leaked in a lab accident, with the outbreak close to the lab rather than a ‘wet market’.
One investigator told the Times: “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.”
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