The Wall Street Journal: Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate on Covid-19 Origin

More than a year after the pandemic, the looming question of the origins of COVID-19 is still on everyone’s mind. According to the previously undisclosed U.S intelligence report, three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of virology in November 2019 became sick enough to seek hospital care with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness. The Wuhan Institute, on the other hand, has not shared any raw data, safety logs, or lab records on its extensive work with bats, which were readily labeled as the most likely source of the virus. Beijing has asserted that the virus could have originated outside China, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to lead an investigation into the origins of the virus. The skepticism and the emergence of numerous conspiracy theories have been in part fuelled by the lack of transparency by Chinese authorities or conclusive proof for the alternate hypothesis. The debate raises crucial questions about the extent and weight of evidence needed to sustain a hypothesis. Chinese authorities have yet to provide access to a Wuhan blood bank so that the Members of the WHO-led team can access and test the samples from December 2019 for antibodies. Read the full article here