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Wuhan laboratory official again rejects accusations about the origin of Covid-19

2021-06-17T18:27:34.846Z


Director of the high security laboratory P3, Shi Zhengli denies en bloc, in the "New York Times", the accusations according to which his


She is nicknamed Chinese "batwoman" - the batwoman - for her laboratory's alleged links to the emergence of the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Shi Zhengli, director of one of the laboratories at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, brushes aside all the accusations.

This Chinese virologist once again denied the theory that the virus causing Covid-19 could have escaped from her institution, in an interview published on Monday in the "New York Times".

In May, US President Joe Biden called on US intelligence services to “redouble their efforts” to explain the origins of Covid-19.

He deplored Beijing's lack of cooperation and transparency.

"Something of which there is no proof"

The theory of a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China has come back in force in recent weeks in the American debate.

And calls for more in-depth investigation are growing within the scientific community.

Shi Zhengli, head of the high-security P3 laboratory (for "class 3 pathogen") at the Wuhan institute which studies many viruses including coronaviruses, responded to the New York Times by phone and email.

"How the hell can I bring proof of something that there is no proof of?"

She first blurted out.

Worries that the virus behind the devastating Covid-19 pandemic escaped from a Chinese lab have focused on the experiments of Dr. Shi Zhengli.

Here's what she told our reporters about her research and accusations that the virus came from her lab.

https://t.co/3g2PJvpLfA pic.twitter.com/MyML7kQtS5

- The New York Times (@nytimes) June 14, 2021

The virologist then wished to continue by email, citing the rules of the institute based in the city which was the first epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the New York Times, Dr Shi then responded with a strong negative when asked if her laboratory had had a strain of the new coronavirus in its possession before the pandemic.

She also denied the information, published in the American press, according to which three researchers from the Wuhan institute were hospitalized in November 2019. According to her, the symptoms of the latter, compatible with Covid-19, could just as well be those of a "seasonal infection".

No “gain-of-function” research, really?

The director of the P3 laboratory also rejected the accusations of dangerous genetic manipulation, in particular relayed in the United States by certain elected Republicans.

This so-called “gain-of-function” research consists of deliberately modifying the genetic code of a molecule, in this case of a virus, in a sometimes harmless way, but sometimes aimed at to increase the virulence or transmissibility of a pathogen in order to better understand it.

Read alsoCovid-19: "The hypothesis of a virus escaped from a laboratory must be examined"

Very controversial, research of this type has nevertheless taken place at the Wuhan institute, affirms the "New York Times".

The American daily refers to an article published in 2017 by a group of scientists from the Wuhan laboratory.

Among the doctors presenting the results of research in which new bat coronaviruses were created is Dr. Shi.

Asked by the New York Times on the issue, the manager claims to have never conducted gain-of-function experiments "aimed at increasing the virulence of viruses".

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-06-17

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