The Wuhan Institute of Virology did keep live bats on its premises, a report by Sky News Australia revealed Sunday, contradicting the World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) which has always maintained such suggestions are a baseless conspiracy.
The revelation came on the same day the W.H.O. said “all hypotheses still remain on the table” as to the origins of the coronavirus, a direct challenge to Beijing which has repeatedly stated it is not responsible for the global pandemic and theories that say the virus was made by humans are wrong.
Sky News Australia obtained official Chinese Academy of Sciences video footage to mark the launch of the new biosafety level 4 laboratory in May 2017 that addresses security precautions in place if “an accident” occurs.
The video shows bats being held in a cage on the premises, along with vision of a scientist feeding a bat with a worm.
The 10 minute clip is titled “The construction and research team of Wuhan P4 laboratory of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences” and features interviews with its leading scientists.
Elements can be seen in the full story as aired below:
The original W.H.O. report investigating the origin of the pandemic failed to mention any bats had been kept at the institute and only its annex referred to animals being housed there.
“The animal room in the P4 facility can handle a variety of species, including primate work with SARS-CoV-2,” it states.
A member of the W.H.O. team investigating the origin of the pandemic in Wuhan, zoologist Peter Daszak said it was a conspiracy to suggest bats were held at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and no evidence existed to support the allegation.
In one tweet dated December, 2020 he said: “No BATS were sent to Wuhan lab for genetic analysis of viruses collected in the field. That’s now how this science works. We collect bat samples, send them to the lab. We RELEASE bats where we catch them!”
Other W.H.O. members were also keen to join him and downplay any such links or questions about the biosafety of the Wuhan facility.
It is “extremely unlikely” the coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, and is more likely to have jumped to humans from an animal, W.H.O. investigators said Tuesday. https://t.co/wush1l4IjD
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 10, 2021
Sky News Australia reports the Chinese Academy of Sciences video was discovered by researchers investigating the origin of the pandemic who call themselves DRASTIC.
Digital archivist “Jesse” found the Chinese Academy of Sciences Video while the group’s co-ordinator, who goes by a pseudonym of “Billy Bostickson” for safety reasons, has long complained evidence bats were housed in the Wuhan laboratories.
The video forms part of the investigation underpinning the book What Really Happened in Wuhan.
Meanwhile, W.H.O. Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 56, on Sunday said more “transparency” from China was needed in the ongoing investigation and suggested Beijing had been less than forthcoming in the past.
Tedros, speaking at a G7 summit briefing, said a lab leak hadn’t been ruled out and “every hypothesis should be open,” a belief long echoed by others critical of China’s stonewalling of investigations in its own backyard.
“Isn’t it strange that this once-in-a-century bat coronavirus pandemic just happened to emerge within a few miles of China’s biggest laboratory researching bat coronaviruses? Shouldn’t we at least look at that lab?” https://t.co/qjtCT61DGI
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 26, 2021
Tedros estimated some 3.75 million people had died from the coronavirus and at least another 174m were confirmed to have contracted the disease.
He said: “I think the respect these people deserve is knowing what the origin of this virus is so that we can prevent it from happening again.”
Tedros also suggested there had not been enough “transparency and co-operation” from China in the initial stages of the investigation, despite all of Beijing’s protestations to the contrary.
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