Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, a month before China reported the first cases of COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a US intelligence report.
The report provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits. The revelations come amid growing calls for a fuller probe on whether the COVID-19 virus may have escaped from the Chinese laboratory.
It also comes on in the backdrop of the meeting of the World Health Organization’s decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of investigation into the origin of COVID-19.
Recently, findings in a report in an Australian daily has yet again reinforced the call that international investigators must dig deeper to rule out whether COVID-19 is a made-in-China bioweapon.
The controversy about COVID-19 origins has resurfaced after the Weekend Australian newspaper revealed that Chinese scientists were thinking about bioweapons, visualising a World War-III scenario.
WATCH | Why China’s Role In COVID-19 Needs An Independent Probe
NewsMobile Editor-in-Chief Saurabh Shukla also said that the world has to stand up against China.
Speaking on a debate show on Republic TV, he said China cannot be absolved of COVID-19 and an impartial probe is needed against it, adding that the world should seek an answer from China as the WHO doesn’t have the investigating power.
He further said, “COVID-19 was a bio-weapon that China has unleashed. China has systematically made sure through its funding efforts, money power and bullying tried to take control of bodies like WHO.”
However, Chinese scientists and officials have consistently rejected the lab leak hypothesis, saying SARS-CoV-2 could have been circulating in other regions before it hit Wuhan, and might have even entered China from another country via imported frozen food shipments or wildlife trading.
China reported to the WHO about the first patient with COVID-like symptoms in Wuhan on December 8, 2019. A joint study into the origins of COVID-19 by the WHO and China published at the end of March said it was “extremely unlikely” that it had escaped from a lab.