2023-06-20 17:34:44
It’s not just the “Bild” that reports a sensation: “Corona patient ZERO found”. The US business magazine “Forbes” also writes: “Covid-19 patient zero identified in Wuhan”. The reports relate in particular to the online medium “Public”, more of a blog than a magazine, which quotes anonymous people from the government in Washington and intelligence findings: According to this, three employees of the coronavirus expert Shi Zhengli from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan fell ill at the end of 2019 – namely due to Covid-19.
Including the virologist Ben Hu, who is described as Shi’s right hand. At the same time, there is said to have been research there on SARS-CoV-2-like viruses. It remains open what evidence there should be for these statements; Secret service circles have also been quoted several times in recent years, according to which employees of the institute – which also received research funding from the USA through cooperation – fell ill in late autumn 2019.
Disclosure promised
But what exactly was unclear, the symptoms should only have been compatible with Covid-19. This also corresponds to a report by the “Wall Street Journal” on Tuesday, which also confirms the identity with reference to anonymous US officials – but there is therefore no proof that they were infected with Sars-CoV-2.
The illnesses of employees close to Shi may be interesting; very unfavorable, however, is the extremely poor evidence situation for all possible origin options. A good three months ago, US President Joe Biden signed a law that would require intelligence information to be released within 90 days, but his government failed to do so by the beginning of this week. According to the “Wall Street Journal”, this should be made up for in the next few days.
Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 16 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 13 A comment by Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 10
In response to media inquiries, Shi previously denied that employees contracted Covid-19 in 2019 and that the virus was in the laboratory. It is clear, however, that she could hardly express herself otherwise due to Beijing’s censorship. So the original question will probably remain open for the time being. It would be a surprise if the promised secret service information provided further substantial clarification.
Note: Compared to the article appearing in the June 21, 2023 issue of the FAZ, the information from the report by the “Wall Street Journal” has been added here.
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