The hypothesis of a laboratory accident as a possible cause of the Covid-19 pandemic is neither the majority nor the most likely, but it is not a conspiracy theory: in a correspondence published by the journal Thursday, May 13 ScienceAbout twenty leading scientists argue for an investigation of this possibility in the same way as a natural “natural animal surplus”. This short article couldn’t have come at a better time. A few hours before publication, three academic works (a dissertation and two master’s theses) conducted in recent years at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (IPH) were revealed on Twitter, through an anonymous scientific account, and scattered disclosures.
The three theses written in Chinese, which were consecutively defended in 2014, 2017 and 2019, have not yet been made public; They contain important information. According to the specialists consulted the world, They question some data taken for granted by the international scientific community about the number and nature of the coronaviruses rescued by the IPH, about experiments with these viruses and even about the integrity of the viral genetic sequences that IPH has published in recent years. months. Wuhan Research Foundation.
Rename virus
“We knew that WIV researchers did not publish all available dataSays molecular biologist Virginie Courtier, a researcher (CNRS) at the Jacques Monod Institute. This time we are caught up: many of their earlier statements seem to be contradictory in these memories. “
One of the main lessons of this work concerns the virus RaTG13, the virus closest to the known SARS-CoV-2 virus, but far removed from its ancestor, that is, its closest ancestor. .
The complete genetic sequence of this virus – 96.2% homozygous to SARS-CoV-2 – was published in the journal Feb.3, 2020. nature By WIV researchers. But a few weeks later, an Italian microbiologist reported on a virology forum that a small portion of the RaTG13 genome had already been published by researchers in Wuhan in 2016. And that the virus in question was not called RaTG13 at the time, but Ra4991. In July 2020 In an interview with the magazine ScienceAnd the Virologist Shi Jingli, head of the high-security IPH lab, confirmed it was the virus itself and was simply renamed RaTG13 in 2020.
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