China’s ‘bat woman’ calls for Donald Trump to apologise over claim coronavirus leaked from Wuhan lab
- Shi Zhengli tells Science magazine that US President should say sorry for linking the research institute to the Covid-19 pandemic
- Researcher also hits out at US government for stopping funding of joint project with New York-based EcoHealth Alliance
A leading scientist at the Wuhan laboratory at the centre of claims it was the source of the Covid-19 outbreak has called for an apology from Donald Trump.
Shi Zhengli, who directs the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, also hit out the US government for stopping funding for joint research with US scientists.
She denied that she or members of her team had been in contact with the Sars-CoV-2 virus before it was detected in the city late last year, saying: “The US President Trump’s claim that Sars-CoV-2 was leaked from our institute totally contradicts the facts.
“It jeopardises and affects our academic work and personal life. He owes us an apology.”
Shi, nicknamed China’s “bat woman” for her research on coronaviruses in the mammals, also condemned the decision by the National Institutes of Health’s decision in April to stop funding her joint research with the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance.
