Origins of the novel coronavirus? Wuhan Institute of Virology recruited researchers to study new virus from bats and rodents 

As Wuhan Pneumonia continues to ravage the world, queries surrounding the origins of the virus continue to grow. American magazine National Review published an article on 3 April discussing the findings by documentary filmmaker Matthew Tye, who lived in China for a long time and understood the Chinese language well. Using publicly available information found on the internet, he found that all evidence points towards the biosafety level P4 laboratory of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Two recruitment activities at the laboratory last year were related to coronavirus research and it was even stated they have "found a new virus in bats and rodents."

According to Tye's investigations, the recruitment notice released on 18 November last year by the institute, entitled "Recruitment of scientists to participate in research on the relationship between coronavirus and bat”, which aimed at exploring the mechanisms that allowed long term co-existence of bats and Ebola virus as well as SARS-related coronavirus without developing any disease. On 24 December, the institute released another notice which stated, "Following the long focused pathological research on important bat-borne viruses, the aim is to prove that pathogens such as SARS and SADS came from bats; and to recognise and identify a large volume of new viruses from bats and rodents. 

Tye pointed out that it was the team of top virologist Shi Zhengli which released the second recruitment. The content of the recruitment notice hinted, "We found a new virus and need to recruit more manpower to handle the virus." He says the medical community in Wuhan were dealing with a cluster of Wuhan Pneumonia cases at the time. But very few people knew about this special coronavirus and its severity. 

It is worth mentioning that leading science journal Scientific American reported on 11 March that before the Chinese government informed the WHO about the "unknown pneumonia", Shi was in a meeting in Shanghai where she received an order requesting her to test the samples of these patients with this "unknown pneumonia". Shi's research stated that the risk of transferring coronavirus from animals to human is the highest in subtropical areas, with bats being the most likely source. And if coronavirus was the culprit, she wondered: “Could it have come from our laboratory?"

Hiding "Patient Zero"?

Tye also pointed out that in the response of the officials to the rumour of Huang Yianling, a researcher of the institute, being "patient zero" adds to suspicions. Public opinions on Chinese social media tend to think that Huang's body was already cremated. Tye even said that if Huang was still alive, the government would have rapidly arranged her to be seen publicly in order to dispel the rumour. This did not happen however, and he thought it could be a hint that the institute was hiding something. 

On the other hand, Xiao Botao, a professor of biology in the South China University of Technology, published a report entitled "Possible origin of the 2019 new coronavirus" stating that the Wuhan Centre For Disease Control & Prevention, which claimed to own more than 600 bats, had incidents in 2017 and 2019 where bat urine and blood were accidentally spilt onto researchers. The centre is located only 300 meters from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market where the outbreak of the epidemic occurred. And the first doctors diagnosed with the Wuhan Pneumonia were also from the nearby Wuhan Union Hospital. So Xiao speculated the original pathogen could have come from a sample or infected waste from the laboratory.

Coincidences before the outbreak of the epidemic not to be ignored

National Review points out that one should not ignore these coincidences before the outbreak of the Wuhan Pneumonia epidemic. The Chinese government stressed repeatedly in the 6 weeks before the outbreak that there was no human-to-human transmission. This could be interpreted as a denial of a link between the research institute and the virus by the officials. Such a claim should not be accepted without an independent review. 

Source: https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/paper/1363969