A director in the Wuhan laboratory responds to the theory of the leakage of the Corona virus

The director of one of the laboratories of the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, again denied the theory that the Corona virus that caused the Covid-19 epidemic had leaked from her institute, in an interview published by the New York Times on Monday.

"How can I provide evidence for something for which there is no evidence?" said Dr. Shi Zhengli, who first answered the newspaper's questions by phone.

The infectious disease expert heads the “B3” laboratory (relative to category III infectious diseases), which is subject to strict security measures at the Wuhan Institute, which conducts studies on many viruses, including the Corona virus.

Wuhan was the first epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic when the outbreak began in late 2019.

According to the New York Times, Shi Zhengli replied with a categorical negative when asked if her laboratory had a sample of the Corona virus before the outbreak of the pandemic.

It also denied information published by the American press that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute were hospitalized in November 2019, after they showed symptoms similar to those caused by Covid-19 and also those caused by "seasonal infection."

In recent weeks, there has been talk in the United States of a theory of an accident in a laboratory in Wuhan that led to the outbreak of the Corona virus.

It is a theory that most experts have categorically denied.

There are many calls in the scientific community for more in-depth investigations.

Shi Jingli rejected accusations of serious genetic manipulations, which had been directed especially by some Republican US officials to the laboratory.

These so-called "functional acquisition" studies are based on intentionally modifying the genetic code of a molecule, in this case the virus, sometimes harmlessly, but sometimes with the aim of increasing the virulence or transmissibility of disease in order to better understand it.

The New York Times confirmed that research of this kind was conducted at the Wuhan Institute, although it is the subject of intense controversy.

The newspaper pointed to an article published in 2017 by a group of scientists in the Wuhan laboratory, including Dr. Shi, in which they present the results of research in which they created new versions of the Corona virus extracted from bats.

In response to a question raised by the New York Times in this regard, the official confirmed that she had never conducted "functional acquisition" experiments aimed at "increasing the virulence of a particular virus."

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