COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a “Complex and Grave Situation” Inside a Wuhan Lab
takyon writes:
COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a "Complex and Grave Situation" Inside a Wuhan Lab at ProPublica and Vanity Fair
The Wuhan lab at the center of suspicions about the pandemic's onset was far more troubled than known, documents unearthed by a Senate team reveal. Tracing the evidence, Vanity Fair and ProPublica give the clearest view yet of a biocomplex in crisis.
[...] Ever since the Chinese city of Wuhan was identified as ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic, a contingent of scientists have suspected that the virus could have leaked from one of the WIV's [Wuhan Institute of Virology] complex of laboratories. The WIV is, after all, the venue for some of China's riskiest coronavirus research. Scientists there have mixed components of different coronaviruses and created new strains, in an effort to predict the risks of human infection and to develop vaccines and treatments. Critics argue that creating viruses that don't exist in nature runs the risk of unleashing them.
[...] Given advance access to hundreds of pages of the Senate researchers' findings and analysis, Vanity Fair, in partnership with ProPublica, spent five months investigating their underlying evidence. We analyzed WIV documents, consulted with experts in CCP communications, asked biocontainment experts to help analyze documents, and reviewed with independent scientists the possible evidence that certain vaccine research may have begun far earlier than acknowledged.
We also traced the hazards that arose as the WIV built a lab to research the world's most dangerous pathogens. Taken together, our reporting provides critical context that is not included in the pared-down 35-page interim report. It offers the most detailed picture to date of the months leading up to the COVID-19 outbreak, including new details on the intense pressure the lab faced to produce breakthrough research, its struggles to grapple with mounting safety issues, and a previously unreported series of references to a mysterious incident shortly before the virus began infecting its first victims.
See also: China Dismisses 'Fabricated' Virus Leak Theory Revived by Report
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