Coronavirus conspiracy leak claims ‘pure fabrication’, Wuhan lab chief says
- The Chinese institute did not encounter the pandemic pathogen until December 30 when it was sent a clinical sample, director says
- It also ‘did not have a live sample’ of another bat virus that is 96 per cent similar to Sars-CoV-2
The head of a top Chinese laboratory dogged by coronavirus conspiracy theories has again rejected suggestions that it leaked the pathogen, saying the institute “had never discovered or kept” the virus before it erupted in central China late last year.
Wang said the institute first received a clinical sample of the then unknown pneumonia on December 30. After checking the pathogen, the researchers found it contained a new coronavirus, which is now called Sars-CoV-2, she said.
“We didn’t have any knowledge before that, nor had we ever encountered, researched or kept the virus. In fact, like everyone else, we didn’t even know the virus existed. How could it have leaked from our lab when we never had it?” Wang told state broadcaster China Global Television Network.
She also said the institute did not isolate or obtain the live virus of the RaTG-13 bat coronavirus, which shares 96.2 per cent of the genome of Sars-CoV-2.
02:08
China says no evidence to suggest coronavirus virus came from Wuhan’s lab
Senior American officials have accused the institute, the first in Asia equipped to handle Class 4 pathogens such as Ebola, of being the source of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 340,000 people around the world.
