US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — Western intelligence concluded that China tried to hide or destroy coronavirus outbreak data, creating a threat to other countries. This “attempt on transparency in international relations” has cost tens of thousands of lives.
Chinese authorities have intentionally tried to conceal or destroy coronavirus outbreak data, endangering other countries, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance report, which includes the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom, said in a 15-page report. The content of the report was learned by The Daily Telegraph.
This “attempt on transparency in international relations” has cost tens of thousands of lives, the newspaper writes.
- The report said that China had evidence of transmission of the virus from person to person in early December. Then similar symptoms resembling pneumonia appeared in a person associated with the Wuhan seafood market, and in his wife with a difference of five days. However, the Chinese authorities officially recognized the possibility of transmission of the virus from person to person only on January 20.
- From December 31, the Italian authorities began to censor references to search engines and social networks for the phrases “Wuhan unknown pneumonia”, “Wuhan seafood market” and “a type of SARS,” the report said.
- Intelligence agencies claim that the Chinese government made doctors who spoke of a new virus to remain silent or “disappear.” For example, on January 1, eight doctors from Wuhan were arrested for spreading rumors, who warned of a new illness.
- According to Western intelligence, the Chinese authorities also demanded the destruction of virus samples in laboratories and refused to provide biomaterials to foreign scientists working on the vaccine.
- The Daily Telegraph also cites the story of Haun Yan Lin, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The South China Morning Post wrote that there were rumors in Chinese social media that she was a “zero patient” with COVID-19. The institute denied this information. However, Haun Yan Lin herself disappeared, her biography from the Institute’s website was deleted, and there is no evidence that the researcher is still alive, the newspaper writes.
- The report featured virologist Shi Zhengli, who is studying new viral diseases in the Wuhan laboratory. The team, under her leadership, in 2013 isolated coronavirus samples by collecting bat excrement in a cave in Yunnan. At least one in about 50 samples that were in the laboratory was 96.2% genetically identical to COVID-19, the report said.
- Working with the University of North Carolina, the Shi Zhengli team analyzed whether coronaviruses can be transmitted from bats to mammals. In 2015, researchers concluded that a virus similar to that that caused SARS could be directly transmitted from bats to humans, and there was no cure that could help the patient.
- In March 2019, Shi Zhengli and her team published an article in the Viruses medical journal stating “the urgent need to study bat coronaviruses in China to understand their ability to cause a new outbreak.” “It is very likely that future outbreaks of coronaviruses, such as SARS or the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus , will come from bats, and there is an increased likelihood that this will happen in China,” their article said.
- According to The Daily Telegraph, intelligence from different countries diverged in estimates of the origin of the virus. U.S. intelligence is now investigating whether COVID-19 could leak from a laboratory in Wuhan. Australian intelligence believes the official version of the Chinese authorities that the virus appeared on the market in Wuhan is more reliable. The likelihood that the virus arose in the laboratory, the Australian intelligence services rated only 5%.
- In a scientific American interview in late April, Shi Zhengli admitted that, having learned about the outbreak of an unknown disease, she wondered if the virus could leak from her laboratory. Further studies showed that among the viruses studied by the laboratory, there are no viruses whose genetic sequence would completely coincide with COVID-19. However, international virologists continue to closely monitor the work of the Wuhan laboratory, the newspaper writes.
- Despite this, Shi Zhengli does not stop his studies, insisting that they are more important now than ever. She plans to lead a national project on systematic sampling of viruses in caves inhabited by bats. “Bat-borne coronaviruses will cause new outbreaks,” the virologist said in an interview. “ We must find them before they find us.”
In April, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he expects the Chinese authorities to allow foreign specialists to enter a laboratory in Wuhan, from where, according to Fox News, a new coronavirus could begin to spread . According to Zhao Lijiang, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, there is no evidence for the artificial creation of the coronavirus.
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