26 of 27 Scientists Who Published Paper Calling COVID Lab Leak Theory a ‘Conspiracy’ Have Ties to Wuhan Lab
A group of virologists in February 2020 published a letter in The Lancet stating they “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife.” Twenty-six of them had ties to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is at the heart of the controversy over its gain-of-function research using bat coronaviruses.
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Story at-a-glance:
- In February 2020, a group of virologists published a letter in The Lancet, stating they “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife,” and calling the lab leak theory a conspiracy.
- Twenty-six of them had ties to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which is at the heart of the controversy over its gain-of-function (GOF) research using bat coronaviruses.
- The heavy conflicts were revealed by an investigation by The Daily Telegraph newspaper and confirm the questions many experts have raised over the paper’s credibility and motives.
- Signatory Peter Daszak, EcoHealth Alliance president, is a name that comes up often, because Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance funded controversial GOF research at the WIV.
- Signatory Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, published work with the head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, George Gao, Ph.D., who he refers to as an “old friend.”
- John Mackenzie, a tropical infectious disease expert at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, was a signatory on The Lancet paper, but he did not disclose that he was also a committee member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of WIV’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases.
- Several of The Lancet paper’s original signatories have reversed their positions and are now calling for a full investigation into COVID-19’s origins.