Pressure piled on China to open labs

CHINA is coming under pressure to share data and open up its virus research centres in Wuhan to proper outside investigation amid growing credibility for the theory that a laboratory incident might have sparked the Covid pandemic.

It follows an admission by the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) origins study that Patient Zero may have been linked to research or sample collection by Wuhan scientists – as suggested by the US State Department in January.

Peter Ben Embarek, a Danish scientist, led the WHO team that earlier this year collaborated with China to dismiss the possibility of a lab leak as ‘extremely unlikely’ but now says there might have been ‘human error’.

An investigation in today’s Mail on Sunday exposes how Shi Zhengli, a leading bat virus researcher at the maximumsecurity Wuhan Institute of Virology, has given ambiguous, deceptive or false information on a range of subjects, from the safety and nature of their research through to her centre’s military links.

The WHO, which has been condemned for kowtowing to China, is now in a stand-off with Beijing as it pushes for a deeper probe into Covid-19’s origins.