Donald Trump airs theory there are pictures of ‘bodies in the street’ outside Wuhan lab

Former US President Donald Trump has gone into detail with a wild theory about what happened in Wuhan as Covid-19 first emerged.

“What happened in Wuhan — I don’t think you want to know.”

That’s how former US President Donald Trump responded to questions about the Covid-19 lab leak theory in a conversation with The Australian’s Sharri Markson, published on Saturday.

Speaking in an extended 30-minute interview on the What Really Happened in Wuhan podcast, Mr Trump said there are likely photographs of body bags piling up outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology when Covid-19 first emerged in early 2020.

“I think it is a terrible situation,” he said.

“Common sense tells you (the coronavirus) most likely, when I say most likely, like 95 per cent, came from the Wuhan lab.

“I don’t know if they had bad thoughts or whether it was gross incompetence, but one way or another … it came from the Wuhan lab. When you mention this in the United States, they went absolutely crazy. I have no idea why.”

Workers next to a cage with mice inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan. Picture: Johannes Eisele/AFP

Mr Trump said he had heard theories about bodies on the street but did not have proof.

“I started hearing stories that you have also, that there were lots of body bags outside the lab,” he told The Australian.

“People were saying there are a lot of people lying down on the streets in Wuhan. And there were bodybags.

“That’s what I’m hearing and I heard that a long time ago. If they did have bodybags, that was one little indication wasn’t it?

“I don’t know it for a fact but that was a rumour … I don’t know where it came from, it was probably China.

“There were lots of rumours that there were dead people … on the street … in that area near the lab.

“I heard that there were (pictures) of it.”

An aerial photo taken on May 27, 2020 on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan. Picture: Hector Retamal / AFP

The lab leak theory is not a new one. China refutes the claims that the pandemic started in a laboratory.

When Australia called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic, China responded by imposing sanctions on Australia.

The relationship between the two countries are still tense and leaders Scott Morrison and Xi Jinping have not spoken despite repeated attempts by Canberra to reach a middle ground.

Markson herself was targeted by China for her reporting of the theory.

Chinese government propaganda newspaper China Daily tweeted the following message in August to its 4.2 million followers: “Australian journalist Sharri Markson actively fans the flames of the Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory and politicises the Covid origins investigations with the right wing circle in the US.”

Australian journalist Sharri Markson actively fans the flames of the Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory and politicizes the Covid origins investigations with the rightwing circle in the US. #MediaUnlockedpic.twitter.com/NtG5aejHkq

— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) August 3, 2021

China Daily reporter Xu Pan Yiru says in a video about Markson’s reporting: “If you think about the Wuhan lab-leak theory, you would probably think the US media played a major role in promoting the conspiracy.”

The lab leak theory conflicts with findings by the World Health Organisation, which found in March that the pandemic was most likely spread from animals to humans.

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo previously told Markson there was “enormous, albeit indirect, evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the centrepoint for this”.

“The cumulative evidence that one can see points singularly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he said.

“The most likely origin of Covid-19 was a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – it’s certainly a probability, and probably a certainty,” added John Ratcliffe, the administration’s former director of national intelligence.

He said if the virus had naturally jumped from bats to humans via the Wuhan wet market, which was the widely accepted theory, then it wouldn’t explain why the Chinese government acted the way it did in the weeks and months after the virus emerged.

The book What Really Happened in Wuhan by Sharri Markson is available now on Booktopia and Amazon.

The documentary What Really Happened in Wuhan featuring Sharri Markson’s exclusive interview with Donald Trump is available on demand on Foxtel.