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Updated June 28th, 2021 at 16:32 IST

'Last foreign scientist at Wuhan lab' says it'd be naive to rule out COVID lab-leak theory

The last foreign scientist to work at Wuhan lab spoke publicly for the 1st time on COVID's origin, praising the institute but not ruling out a possible lab-leak

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
china
IMAGE: AP/Pixabay | Image:self
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The last foreign scientist to work at Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is also the center of coronavirus lab leak theory, has spoken publicly for the first time regarding the conspiracy. In an interview with Bloomberg published on June 27, Australian virologist Danielle Anderson who is an expert in bat-borne viruses said that working at Wuhan lab was her lifelong goal and has supported the investigation into the origins of COVID-19 without ruling out the possibility of a coronavirus leaking from the lab.

Anderson was in Wuhan in 2019 when the COVID-19 virus first began to spread in the country. The Australian virologist told the media publication that she was impressed by the biocontainment lab at the Wuhan lab. She also revealed that all researchers at WIV had to undergo “extensive” 45-hour training to be certified to work independently in the lab. Anderson recalled of the training, “It’s very, very extensive.”

However, notably, Anderson did not completely rule out the possibility of a novel coronavirus being leaked from the Wuhan lab in 2019 that led to the pandemic. She still stated that she believes COVID-19 is likely to have been originated from nature but supported the investigations into the origin of the disease.

"I’m not naive enough to say I absolutely write this off," Anderson said.

“The pandemic is something no one could have imagined on this scale,” she said. “The virus was in the right place at the right time and everything lined up to cause this disaster.”

Anderson said no one was sick

Anderson noted that no one that she had knowledge of was sick at WIV when she was working there. The virologist also said that there is an extensive procedure for the reporting of symptoms that relate to pathogens and are handled at the lab. She told the media publication, “If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick—and I wasn’t.”

Anderson said, “I was tested for coronavirus in Singapore before I was vaccinated, and had never had it.”

Bloomberg also stated that several of Anderson’s collaborators at the lab would later join her in Singapore in December where she reported no one flagged any sickness that was originated from the Wuhan lab. She told the media publication, “There was no chatter,” Anderson said. “Scientists are gossipy and excited...There was nothing strange from my point of view going on at that point that would make you think something is going on here.” She also told the publication, “It’s not that it was boring, but it was a regular lab that worked in the same way as any other high-containment lab...What people are saying is just not how it is.”

IMAGE: AP/Pixabay

 

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Published June 28th, 2021 at 16:32 IST

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