Government documents published in the United States show that Chinese scientists from Wuhan studied a viral strain found in bats that is nearly identical to COVID-19. The Banal-52 Lao bats virus shares 96.8% of the genome with Sars-Cov-2, which means it may be the progenitor of the virus that led to the global pandemic. Given that Wuhan is located hundreds of kilometers from Laos, scientists initially doubted the existence of a connection, but the documents that have become the subject of publicity give new life to this theory.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology studied coronaviruses found in bats from Laos months before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which served as the basis for the theory that the Sars-Cov-2 virus escaped the laboratory.
According to the Daily Mail, US government documents released under the Freedom of Information Act suggest that the origin of the coronavirus from bats and the history of the virus leaking from the laboratory may not be competing theories after all – in fact, both of them could be true.
In September, scientists found that the Banal-52 coronavirus, found in Lao bats, shares a 96.8% genome with Sars-Cov-2, writes the Daily Mail. The striking similarities between the two coronaviruses have led scientists to speculate that a strain of Lao bats may somehow have caused Sars-Cov-2. But there is one serious problem: how could a virus originating from bats living in Laos provoke an outbreak in Wuhan, China, more than 1,500 km away?
The mystery could now be solved as emails published between the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance and US government sponsors show that virus samples from Lao bats were collected and sent for research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Viral DNA from “bats and other high-risk species” has been sent to Wuhan since June 2017, according to emails recovered from an FOI request made by an American group called the White Coat Waste Project. to May 2019.
In addition to working in Laos, the EcoHealth Alliance has investigated cave bat viruses in Yunnan, China and sent samples to scientists in Wuhan for further study. The RaTG13 virus, also strikingly similar genetically to Sars-Cov-2, was found in horseshoe bats in a mine in Yunnan province.
Genetic sequence records collected in both Yunnan and Laos were removed from an online database at the Wuhan Institute in September 2019, leaving experts unaware of which strains were being studied there.
Gilles Demaneuf, a New Zealand data scientist and member of the Drastic research group on the origin of the pandemic, believes the discovery provided a “plausible” route for the virus to spread from Lao bats to humans in Wuhan. Demaneuf recently blogged: “We now have a very likely direct route with two options.”
Lord Matt Ridley, co-author of the book on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, believes that if the backstory of the pandemic did start in Laos, it gives hope to Western researchers: “Number one, bat sampler from Wuhan, infected during a field trip. Number two, research accident in Wuhan while manipulating the Lao-like bat coronavirus. “
Another document released in September by Drastic analyst group showed that EcoHealth Alliance chief Dr Peter Dashak has approached the US government to fund a project to artificially implant cleavage sites in Sars-like coronaviruses collected in the field and being studied in Wuhan. But Dr. Peter Dashak’s 2018 request for $ 14.2 million to work with viral manipulation was denied due to concerns that such changes could be dangerous.
Lord Matt Ridley, co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, believes that although the plan to add fission sites to Sars-like coronaviruses was rejected by the US government, it may have been implemented. In a recent column for The Spectator, Lord Ridley wrote: “Most of the funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology comes from China, not the US government, after all; so the failure to obtain a US grant may not have hindered the work done. Moreover, this very experiment has already been conducted with another type of coronavirus – guess who? – Wuhan Institute of Virology “.
Addressing the proposed link between the coronavirus and Lao bats, Lord Ridley expressed hope that this version could help Western researchers whose search for the truth about SARS-CoV-2 has been thwarted by uncooperative China. Lord Ridley believes: “If the path to the source of the pandemic lies through Laos, perhaps Western countries can learn more. The Chinese government has blocked anyone trying to approach the mine in Yunnan where RaTG13 was found. ” The expert is referring to RaTG13, a coronavirus found in horseshoe bats in Yunnan, another bat-borne virus with striking genetic similarities to Sars-Cov-2.
“Coronavirus created artificially”: photo of the Institute in Wuhan
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“But now that we know that the US government has funded the collection of virus samples in Laos, EcoHealth Alliance should be required to provide a full report on what was found. To say “Oh, this data now belongs to the Chinese” is not enough, the expert insists. “The work was funded by American taxpayers.”
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