New evidence of Wuhan lab cooking up Covid virus emerges

A new US intelligence report indicates that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in November 2019 and sought hospital care.

More evidence is emerging of the Wuhan Institute of Virology's role in the Covid-19 outbreak. 

A new US intelligence report indicates that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in November 2019 and sought hospital care. 

The report could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, intelligence gathered by an international partner expands on a State Department document confirming that workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill with symptoms 'consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness'.

The report said cited US officials as stating that the intelligence report stopped short of confirming the researchers had contracted coronavirus.

Popular theory suggests that the Covid-19 virus originated in the Wuhan lab, which accidentally leaked into the wider population in November 2019. Beijing officially confirmed the first Covid-19 case on December 8, 2019.

Nicholas Wade, a former Science and New York Times reporter, recently wrote a detailed article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in which he said: "The evidence adds up to a serious case that the SARS2 virus could have been created in a lab. But the case falls short of proof. There is evidence from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or related labs in Wuhan that SARS2 or a predecessor virus was under development there. For lack of access to such records, the next approach is to take certain salient facts about the SARS2 virus and ask how well each is explained by the two rival scenarios of origin."

Chinese authorities, as expected, rejected this theory. Instead, Beijing has been pushing through its own theories on the origin of the virus, which include the claim that the virus was created at a biomedical research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland, US.

On Sunday, China's foreign ministry noted that a WHO-led team had concluded a lab leak was extremely unlikely after a visit in February to the virology institute. 

"The US continues to hype the lab leak theory. Is it actually concerned about tracing the source or trying to divert attention," the ministry asked.