Lifting the lid on the Covid cover-up: Sharri Markson explores what happened in Wuhan

It’s the burning question of our time: what really happened in Wuhan? For Sharri Markson, it’s a question that needs to be unpicked sooner rather than later.

The Australian’s investigations writer Sharri Markson: ‘There is no scientific consensus that COVID-19 has a natural origin.’ Picture: Adam Yip

It’s the burning question of our time — what really happened in Wuhan?

For The Australian’s investigations writer Sharri Markson, it’s a question that needs to be forensically unpicked sooner rather than later, lest the lessons of Wuhan be lost to history.

Markson, 37, has written her debut book on the subject, and says she was motivated to undertake the project following the release in February of the World Health Organisation’s report into the origins of COVID-19, which was widely criticised for its lack of depth amid claims that the agency did not push hard enough for answers.

“While I’ve been reporting on and investigating this topic for over a year, the book itself has been a fairly fast turnaround,” Markson says.

“I didn’t decide to write the book until February, when it became clear the WHO investigation into the origins of COVID-19 was going to be a whitewash. It was clear that there was not going to be any proper investigation into the origins of the virus.”

Markson’s book explores what happened in Wuhan — how early the virus emerged, China’s extensive cover-up, the many whistleblowers who have gone missing, feared dead, and the evidence for a laboratory leak.

She says she had “extraordinary access” to senior figures within the White House, and to Chinese dissidents and whistleblowers as well. “Ultimately, they are the key to trying to solve the question of what happened, and how the virus started.” The Walkley Award winner says the idea that the virus had a natural origin has been too readily accepted by the wider community, and by sections of the media.

Markson’s book will be released in September

“There is so much information just below the surface that people aren’t aware of. A lot of people say: ‘Isn’t the scientific consensus that it came from animals, that it had a natural origin?’

“And it’s just completely untrue.

“The world’s leading virologists and epidemiologists say the virus may have come from a laboratory, pointing to the dangerous ‘gain of function’ research to create new deadly viruses that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was doing, and the unusual genetic features of SARS-CoV-2 itself.”

Markson says her pursuit of the truth behind the origins of the virus has drawn shallow criticism from several other Australian media outlets.

“The left-wing media, the ABC, the SMH, the Guardian, ridiculed me for investigating this a year ago, claiming it was a conspiracy theory.

“It’s nothing of the sort,” she says.

“Contrary to their claims, there is no scientific consensus that COVID-19 has a natural origin.”

Markson says writing a book in such a short time frame was tiring but rewarding.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” she says.

“ I’ve loved the process of writing a book.

“It is a very different skill to journalism. Because most of my interviewees for the book are in other time zones, it’s been a lot of late nights and early mornings — and less sleep than you get with a newborn.”

Helen Littleton, head of non-fiction at Harper Collins Australia, says Markson’s reporting skills — and her tenacity — served her well.

“She’s taken an investigative journalist’s lens to the most pressing question of the moment, and she’s been able to piece together the full story,” Ms Littleton says.

“Of course, it helps that she’s fearless.”

What really happened in Wuhan, published by HarperCollins Australia, is slated for local and international release on September 29.

What really happened in Wuhan, by Sharri Markson, is available for pre-order from Booktopia now by clicking here.