08/09/2021 12:32
Clarín.com
International
Updated 08/09/2021 12:32 PM
China's now famous "bat woman", the director of the Wuhan laboratory, the place accused of being a possible source of the pandemic, warned that
new deadly mutations of COVID-19 will continue to emerge.
Virologist
Shi Zhengli
gave the dire prognosis to state media this week when she called for people to get vaccinated, according to the South Morning China Post (SCMP).
"Since the number of infected cases became too large, this allowed the new coronavirus to
have more opportunities to mutate
," Shi told the Chinese state newspaper.
"New variants will continue to emerge
,
" he
warned.
The Chinese "bat woman", inside the controversial Wuhan laboratory.
Photo: AFP
Coronavirus variants have been mutating repeatedly since it first emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan, the city where Shi's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) conducted pioneering research on nearly identical viruses.
The most dominant strain today,
Delta
that was first identified in India, is also the most infectious and dangerous, health officials warned.
Shi Zhengli predicted that the virus will continue to mutate.
Photo: AFP
Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) even said in a leaked report that the variant was so different from the initial strain that it was time to
"acknowledge that the war changed,"
which gave lead to new warnings on the use of masks.
even for the vaccinated.
But it could soon be followed by a variant called "
Doomsday"
which is "Delta on steroids," Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, recently told Newsweek.
The coronavirus was identified in a Wuhan laboratory in 2019. Photo: AFP
China and Shi
repeatedly denied suspicions that the Wuhan lab accidentally created or leaked the coronavirus, most recently detailed in an investigation conducted in the United States.
President Joe Biden ordered US spy agencies to investigate the theories, and a report is expected later this month.
Shi previously insisted that the rumors are "unfounded"
and simply "spew filth" on innocent scientists.
Deleted studies
In January, the British newspaper Daily Mail published alarming news: More than 300 studies published by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including research on diseases that are transferred from animals to humans, were eliminated.
The state organization deleted dozens of online content
, including studies carried out by virologist Shi Zhengli.
The 56-year-old scientist earned the nickname "Bat Woman" for her research on collecting cave samples of these types of animals.
Aerial view of the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, China.
There the coronavirus would have been discovered.
Photo: AFP
According to the Daily Mail, the massive elimination of online studies reaffirmed, months ago, fears that
China is trying to hamper the investigation into the origin of the coronavirus
.
Data, including the risk of infection between bat species with SARS-like coronaviruses and research on human pathogens carried by bats, are no longer available.
In March, the Wuhan laboratory received a visit from experts from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The laboratory was investigated in March by the WHO.
Photo: AFP
And at that moment, suspicions and theories about the research center, which has several maximum security laboratories, were rekindled.
Most researchers believe that Sars-CoV-2 likely originated in bats and would have passed through another species (which is not yet known) before being transmitted to humans.
At the moment, there is no evidence to validate this hypothesis.
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