Scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted risky experiments to create deadly mutant coronaviruses by fusing newly discovered strains – just before the outbreak of Covid-19.
US investigators believe Covid-19 was created by scientists at the Wuhan lab through experiments with a similar coronavirus discovered in a mine shaft in southern China.
Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fused deadly coronaviruses to create highly infectious mutant strains, which were then used to infect albino mice, the US investigators claim.
The research program was kept secret and covered up because it was funded by the Chinese military with the aim of developing biological weapons, investigators suspect.
The secret initiative in turn led to the emergence of Covid-19, which then made its way to the city of Wuhan through a laboratory accident before spreading across the globe, US investigators claim.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured) was conducting risky experiments on coronavirus just before the Covid-19 outbreak
The Wuhan lab originally set out to uncover the origins of the deadly SARS virus that first broke out in southern China in 2002, US investigators told The Sunday Times.
But the research institute soon became involved in increasingly risky experiments with coronaviruses taken from caves in southern China.
The Wuhan lab initially released all of its findings, claiming its research was necessary to develop vaccines for the coronavirus.
However, the institute’s position changed in 2016 when researchers at the Wuhan Institute discovered a new coronavirus in a mine shaft in Mojiang, Yunnan, near the Chinese-Laos border.
The coronavirus discovered in the Mojiang mine shaft is believed to be the only member of the immediate family of Covid-19 that existed before the pandemic.
However, Chinese authorities failed to report any deaths related to the new coronavirus, which was detected in the Mojiang mine shaft.
Instead, the mineshaft viruses were brought back to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers started a secret research program, investigators say.
Scientists have discovered a new coronavirus in a mine shaft in Yunnan, southern China, which has been linked to a string of deaths (File Photo: Scientists collect bats from a cave in Guangdong)
The Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured) launched a secret research initiative where they fused coronaviruses in a series of risky experiments
US investigators believe this secret research initiative aimed to make the newly discovered virus more contagious by fusing it with other coronaviruses.
They claim the facts of the research program were kept secret because it was funded by the Chinese military in line with bioweapons development efforts.
In the experiments, albino mice with human-like lungs were infected with SARS-like viruses, causing a 75 percent death rate.
In the risky experiment, the mice were infected with three lab-grown viruses made by fusing SARS-like viruses with a virus discovered in a cave in Yunnan in 2012.
Investigators believe these secret experiments eventually led to the emergence of Covid-19 before it accidentally made its way out of the Wuhan lab.
They believe the virus made its way from the Wuhan lab to the city of nearly nine million people through a lab accident.
Investigators believe several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology contracted Covid in November 2019 – a month before the West became aware of the virus.
A study by Wuhan University shows that the area surrounding the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the original center of the spread of Covid-19.
Covid-19 emerged as a result of the experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology before it was leaked through a lab accident, US investigators say (File Photo: Students celebrate the start of the new semester in Wuhan in September 2021)
Scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted a series of experiments infecting mice with highly infectious coronaviruses (File Photo: Medical staff carry a patient in Wuhan, January 2020)
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However, links to the Wuhan lab have been covered up, investigators say, as they claim the outbreak was instead attributed to the Huanan wet food market, located across the Yangtze River, which flows through the city several miles away.
Investigators also claim that the Wuhan lab started work on a vaccine even before the pandemic, in the fall of 2019.
A decorated military scientist, Zhou Yusen, later brought forward a vaccine patent with remarkable speed in February 2020, just months after the outbreak was revealed.
A report later claimed that Zhou must have started developing his vaccine no later than November 2019 — right when the pandemic began.
The 54-year-old military vaccine specialist is now believed to have died. According to US investigators, he was thrown from the roof of the Wuhan Institute, according to witnesses.
After the leak, Chinese authorities implemented an information crackdown, preventing researchers from investigating the origins of Covid-19, US investigators said.
Foreign scientists have been denied entry to the caves where the coronavirus was originally detected and their samples have been taken by police.