NOBODY HEARD HER Silenced Wuhan virus lab researcher dubbed ‘Bat Woman’ warned of SARS-like coronavirus outbreaks a YEAR ago
THE Wuhan lab researcher nicknamed ‘Bat Woman’ warned about a SARS-like coronavirus outbreak a year ago.
The prediction came from a study carried out by Shi Zhengli and her colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology when they emphasised the importance of conducting investigations into the viruses from bats.
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Shi, nicknamed the ‘Bat Woman’ is said to have sequenced the genes of the new coronavirus in three days after the epidemic emerged in China, but was then gagged by her boss.
The warning was part of a research paper submitted by Shi, the deputy director at the institute, and three co-authors in January, 2019.
It was published in March by MDPI who print peer-reviewed, open access journals.
In the article, the team emphasised the likelihood of another coronavirus epidemic in China by analysing three large-scale outbreaks caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome (SADS) respectively.
It said that all three pathogens were coronaviruses and could be traced back to bats, and two of them had originated in China.
The researchers said: “Thus, it is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China.
“Therefore, the investigation of bat coronaviruses becomes an urgent issue for the detection of early warning signs, which in turn minimises the impact of such future outbreaks in China.”
The scientists also indicated that China's size, population and biodiversity could propel the spread of the potential bug.
It also underlined the Chinese tradition of favouring fresh meat.
“Chinese food culture maintains that live slaughtered animals are more nutritious, and this belief may enhance viral transmission,” the paper read.
Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has infected more than two million people worldwide and killed over 145,000 since the pandemic began in Wuhan in December last year.
The £34million Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has become the centre of the controversy as the pandemic rages on around the world.
Theories are currently circulating that claim the virus came from the institute, which has the highest biosafety level of P4.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Washington was trying to determine if the coronavirus first crossed to humans accidentally during experiments involving bats at the Wuhan centre.
However, China has stated that the World Health Organization (WHO) had found no evidence the novel coronavirus was man-made.
A team led by Shi already discovered in 2018 that humans might be able to catch the coronavirus directly from bats after conducting studies, according to Beijing News.
While scientists believe that the virus jumped to humans from wild animals sold as food in a market about 10 miles from the lab, this hasn’t stopped some wild conspiracy theories circulating.
Some people claim that the virus, formally known as SARS-CoV-2, could be a biological warfare weapon engineered there. Others suspect that it escaped from the lab.
Shi told the press in February that she “guaranteed with her own life” that the outbreak was not related to the lab.
China also refuted reports which named Huang Yanling, a researcher at the Institute of Virology, as 'patient zero' – the first person to be infected.
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