Media Watch host Paul Barry yet to correct the record on Wuhan ‘lab leak’ theory

Fresh allegations about the origins of Covid-19 have been ignored by the ABC, including Paul Barry, who previously said a Wuhan lab leak was a ‘conspiracy theory’.

Fresh allegations about the origins of Covid-19 that aired in a Sky News documentary have been ignored by ABC, including journalist and Media Watch host Paul Barry, who previously stated a potential lab leak in Wuhan was a “conspiracy theory”.

The program, What Really Happened in Wuhan, aired last week and is based on a forthcoming book written by The Australian’s investi­gations writer Sharri Markson, which details revelations about the Chinese laboratory where some intelligence ­officials believe the coronavirus may have originated.

Among those to repeatedly dismiss claims linking the outbreak to a possible lab leak are Barry and ABC’s high-profile health reporter, Norman Swan.

Markson’s documentary outlined fresh details about activity inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the months before the emergence of the coronavirus, and included an interview with former US president Donald Trump and former US director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe, who said he believed some of the first Chinese scientists who fell ill with Covid-19 were missing.

Barry has aired repeated attacks on Markson’s reporting over the past 17 months on the Media Watch program, and in a segment that aired on May 4 last year he referred to “conspiracy theories” or “conspiracy theorists” five times when critiquing her work.

He signed off on the segment by stating: “Conspiracy theories like this are so hard to kill.”

The following week, on May 11, he aired another Media Watch segment criticising the reporter’s work, describing it as “Markson’s now infamous coronavirus scoop”.

The Australian put questions to Barry, including whether he would be doing a follow-up on Markson’s latest revelations, or issuing her an apology and correcting his reports.

Barry responded: “Thanks for your interest. Same answer as when you asked me the questions five months ago.

“Let me save you the trouble of digging it out.” In his May statement, which he added to his latest response, he wrote: “There is now expert support for the lab escape theory. And if the Wuhan Lab proves to be the source of the Covid-19 outbreak, we will certainly update our viewers and apologise to Ms Markson for our scepticism.”

The Biden administration’s probe into the origins of Covid found both human contact with an infected animal and a lab leak plausible explanations for the start of the pandemic.

Swan, the ABC’s prominent pandemic commentator, has continued to shift his position on the origins of the virus after saying in May last year the lab leak theory was “unlikely”. “It’s on the outer bounds of possibility, but really so unlikely that you could say … it’s not the case,” he said at the time.

But on Sunday he told The Australian his views had not changed much.

“In fact, given the evidence from a large group of independent scientists on this I have swung back towards this being more likely to have been a zoonotic outbreak (spread between animals and humans), one of several over the last 20 years,” he said.

“A lab leak though is still a possibility. No certainty in either direction.”

The ABC was also contacted for comment and asked whether they would be correcting the record on Media Watch’s repeated dismissal of Markson’s reporting.

An ABC spokesman declined to answer the questions, instead stating: “We will leave the book publicity to you.”

Markson’s book is due to be released on Wednesday and already has thousands of pre-orders in the US, Britain and Australia.

Publisher HarperCollins has ordered an initial English language print run of 53,000 copies.

The book will also be translated in a deal with HarperCollins Japan later this year.

Watch Sharri Markson’s world exclusive documentary on Foxtel on Demand. Markson’s book, What Really Happened In Wuhan, is available for pre-order from Booktopia and is available from Wednesday.