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A report based on multiple anonymous sources inside the US government says that researchers working inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were the first to be infected with the virus that went on to trigger a pandemic and kill millions worldwide. The report in Public cites “multiple U.S. government officials interviewed as part of a lengthy investigation” saying that Ben Hu, who led WIV’s gain-of-function research on coronaviruses, was among the “patients zero” who contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus in November of 2019. Sources told Public that Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu, all from WIV, are thought to be among the first infected with Covid-19. If confirmed, the report would seem to disprove the long-held theory that the virus was not accidentally leaked from the Wuhan coronavirus lab, but instead emerged from a nearby wet market where exotic meats like pangolin are sold. The so called “lab leak theory” was raised in the early days of the pandemic, but was often dismissed by officials, experts and members of the media.
Adding to the confusion, conflicting reports over the past few years have supported either the lab leak hypothesis and the narrative of a virus emerging zoonotically from the wet market. “When a source was asked how certain they were that these were the identities of the three WIV scientists who developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in the fall of 2019, we were told, “100%” it reads.
Representatives from WIV did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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