Former US official David Asher claims Covid-19 started in Wuhan lab

A former US official has revealed new information which adds weight to charges Covid-19 started in a Chinese lab.

A former US State Department official has revealed that the wife of a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology died of a mysterious virus-like illness in December 2019, adding further weight to charges that the Covid-19 pandemic may have started in a Chinese lab.

David Asher — who was part of a team investigating the origins of the coronavirus whose work was stopped by the Biden administration — has made the shock claim to the US-based Daily Caller News Foundation.

If the woman did die from a coronavirus infection, it would have been another early clue that the virus could be passed from person to person, something China vigorously denied for several weeks even as the pandemic spread across the globe.

On January 14, 2020 the World Health Organisation, bowing to pressure from China, tweeted that there was “no clear evidence” that the coronavirus could spread between people.

The Chinese government also silenced doctors in Wuhan who tried to raise the alarm before it was too late.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan. Picture: AFP

Virologist Shi Zheng-li (left) with a colleague in the P4 lab of Wuhan Institute of Virology on February 23, 2017. Picture: Getty

Yet while Chinese officials locked down internal travel within mainland China, Beijing allowed international travel to continue, spreading the virus around the world, while slamming nations that took steps to close their own borders.

The day after Italy imposed a ban on all flights to and from China, Italy’s ambassador to Beijing was given a dressing down by China’s vice-Minister of foreign affairs, Qin Gang.

“Italy’s decision to stop flights without contacting China in advance caused great inconvenience to citizens of both countries. Many Chinese are still stranded in Italy,” the foreign ministry announced at the time.

Italy would go on to be one of the nations worst-hit by the coronavirus.

An Italian Army officer checks a passenger at the Rome Termini railway station, to make sure that she is not violating quarantine. Picture: Getty

China was backed in on its decision to leave international borders open by World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said on February 3 of that year: “There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade. We call on all countries to implement decisions that are evidence-based and consistent.”

The news comes just days after the Wall Street Journal reported that three workers at the lab were hospitalised with Covid-like symptoms in November 2019.

“How many normal people in their 30s to 40s get so sick from influenza that they have to be hospitalised? Lab workers, I am told, almost certainly getting flu shots,” Mr Asher said last week.

“Moreover, what are the odds that several workers — who happen to be the researchers on enhancing the pathogenicity of COV RaTG13 and associated (coronaviruses) — all fall very sick together?”

World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on January 28, 2020. Picture: AFP

While The Daily Telegraph was among the first newspapers to give credence to the theory, many dismissed the notion as a Donald Trump conspiracy theory, with the ABC’s Media Watch devoting several taxpayer-funded episodes to attempts to debunk the idea.

However, the weight of evidence has continued to swing towards the lab scenario, suggesting that it may have escaped in a lab accident.

Experts have pointed to so-called “gain of function” experiments which were being conducted at Wuhan.

Designed to make viruses more deadly and transmissible, they have long been a subject of controversy in the medical research arena, with many scientists saying that any potential knowledge gains are not worth the risk of a mishap.

Last week US president Joe Biden announced that the intelligence community was split as to whether the coronavirus originated in a lab or in nature, and ordered agencies to report with their findings within 90 days.

“Smear campaigns and blame shifting are making a comeback, and the conspiracy theory of ‘lab leak’ is resurfacing,” the Chinese embassy in Washington said in response.