A top Chinese government scientist says it’s best not to rule out the possibility of a COVID lab leak theory.
Professor George Gao, former head of China’s Center for Disease Control (CDC), disagrees with the Chinese government’s denial that the disease may have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. The BBC.
As head of China’s CDC during the pandemic, Professor Gao played a key role in the response to the pandemic and efforts to trace its origins.
The world-renowned virologist and immunologist said it’s normal to “doubt anything” because it’s part of science.
“You can always doubt anything. This is science. Don’t rule anything out.” Professor Gao said.
According to the report, meanwhile, a The BBC podcast, Professor Gao gave a “possible sign” that the Chinese government “takes the lab leak theory more seriously than its official statements”.
The current vice president of China’s National Natural Science Fund suggested that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had been the subject of some form of “official investigation.”
He claimed that the government had organized something, but that the China CDC, his own department, was not part of it.
He agreed that the “official search for WIV” – one of China’s top national laboratories known to have dedicated years to investigating Covid – was “another branch of government”. was done by
“Yes,” he said, “this lab was double-checked by experts in the field.”
Despite Professor Gao’s claim that he had not seen the results, the report said he had “heard” that the lab had received a clean bill of health.
This is the first time an official investigation has been acknowledged as having taken place.
“I think their conclusion is that they are following all the protocols. They found no wrongdoing,” he clarified.
It is believed that the virus that causes COVID originally originated in bats. However, the subject of how it came to us from bats is far more controversial, and there were initially two main options.
One is that the virus passed naturally from bats to humans, possibly through other animals, which most scientists agree on.
Meanwhile, other scientists claim that the data are insufficient to completely rule out the main alternative theory, which is that the virus infected someone who was participating in a study that was intended by nature. The threat of emerging viruses was to be better understood.
In contrast, Professor Gao’s comments appear to be in stark contrast to China’s approach.
The Chinese embassy in Britain said in a statement: “The so-called ‘lab leak’ is a hoax created by anti-China forces. It is politically motivated and has no scientific basis.”
Despite all the chaos surrounding this argument, a strange, unsupported third concept is being promoted by the Chinese government.
The Chinese government claims that “the virus did not come from a lab or market, but may have been brought into the country on frozen food packaging.”
Professor Gao’s remarks can be seen as a more scientific version of the Chinese government’s claim – that it excludes both the lab and the market – as he excludes neither.
Ultimately, both are based on the assumption that there is insufficient evidence.
“We really don’t know where the virus came from; the question is still open,” Professor Gao said.