Beijing lab mishap ‘infected scientist’ with Covid-19

A Beijing laboratory director was infected with Covid-19 in a lab accident in early 2020, explosive emails have revealed.

A Beijing laboratory director was infected with Covid-19 in a lab accident in early 2020, explosive emails have revealed, showing an inadvertent leak of the highly contagious coronavirus is far from a conspiracy theory.

A senior scientist at a prestigious laboratory, the National Institute for Viral Disease Control, allegedly contracted Covid-19 in his laboratory in early 2020 while researching the virus, prominent virologists say.

The virologists discussed the infection in an email chain obtained by the US Right to Know group.

China’s failure to disclose this laboratory accident has raised questions about whether health authorities would have disclosed a lab accident in Wuhan months earlier.

Ohio State University director of viruses and emerging pathogens Shan-Lu Liu wrote in an email dated February 14, 2020: “We were from the same lab where my former director has now been infected by SARS-CoV-2! Very sad but he’s doing OK!”

Scientist Lishan Su, then at the University of North Carolina, replied: “Your former colleague was infected with sars2 in the lab?”

Shan-Lu Liu responded: “Yes, he was infected in the lab!”

University of Massachusetts Medical School professor Shan Lu, also on the email chain, wrote 15 minutes later: “I actually am very concerned for the possibility of SARS-2 infection by lab people. It is much more contagious than SARS-1.

“Now every lab is interested in get a vial of virus to do drug discovery. This can potentially (sic) a big issue.”

The virologists were preparing a commentary to refute the ­hypothesis that Covid-19 emerged in a laboratory. The piece had been commissioned by Shan Lu, who is editor-in-chief of the medical journal Emerging Microbes and Infections.

US Right to Know executive director Gary Ruskin said the emails were a strong and reliable indication of a lab-acquired infection of SARS-CoV-2 from a prestigious Beijing virology institute.

“Lab accidents happen. They are not a conspiracy theory. It’s time for the China CDC to disclose everything they know about this accident,” he told the Weekend Australian.

“This new lab accident, and the failure to disclose it, is further evidence of the potential dangers of Chinese biolabs, and the failure to publicly disclose the accident does not bring confidence they would have disclosed a lab accident in Wuhan if it happened.”

The Right to Know group obtained the emails from Ohio State University under the Ohio Public Records Act.

In the same email chain where Shan-Lu Liu revealed his former colleague had been infected in the lab, the scientists discussed whether to include in the article the risks of working on contagious coronaviruses.

Lishan suggested including such a sentence about the “public health concerns” of working with a contagious virus in an email sent at 11am on February 14, 2020.

Shan-Lu Liu replied saying: “I get your point – maybe below one reads better?

“We should emphasis that although SARS-CoV-2 shows no evidence of laboratory origin, ­viruses with such great public health threats must be handled properly in the laboratory and properly regulated by scientific community and governments.”

The Chinese Communist Party, World Health Organisation investigators and prominent scientists have repeatedly claimed that a lab leak origin for Covid-19 is a conspiracy theory.