US academics ‘may be prosecuted’ over Covid-19 lab leak: top scientist

A top US biologist has backed Sharri Markson’s reporting into the Covid-19 lab leak, saying there’s ‘very clear evidence for criminal fraud’ by Anthony Fauci and other academics who played it down.

A top US biologist says Anthony Fauci lied over the lab leak theory. Picture: Getty Images

A leading US scientist expects academics who played down the idea Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory, despite their private doubts, will face criminal prosecution for fraud and has praised journalist Sharri Markson for her dogged investigation of the so-called “lab leak theory”.

Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist and professor at Rutgers University, told The Australian the “preponderance of evidence” available supported the notion the new virus emerged from research-related activities at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, before rapidly spreading throughout the world in early 2020.

Professor Ebright, a long term advocate for reducing the risk of biological weapons programs, said the arguments over the origin of Covid-19 was “moving out of the scientific community arena, into the congressional arena, and ultimately it will move into the judicial arena”.

“There will be referrals for prosecution of violations of law, including, based on what we know already, very clear evidence for criminal fraud, for criminal conspiracy to defraud or criminal misuse of federal funds,” he said.

Virologist Shi Zheng-li, left, works with her colleague in the P4 lab of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan. Picture: Getty Images.

In February 2020 a group of scientists with research links to the Wuhan lab authored a paper “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” that in effect ruled out the possibility the new virus, which displayed unique characteristics that made it particularly infectious for humans.

The release of numerous emails and private correspondence among the authors earlier this month by the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, which revealed their significant private doubts about that conclusion, have prompted allegations of fraud and cast fresh doubts on the once more widely belief the virus emerged from animals in a Wuhan wet market.

Sharri Markson.

Professor Ebright’s comments came days after Republican Senator Rand Paul, who has led congressional efforts to uncover the true origin, referred Dr Anthony Fauci, a former top US health bureaucrat, to the Department of Justice for prosecution over allegations he lied to Congress over the extent of US funding that had been directed to the Wuhan lab.

“There’s no question in my mind that [Tony] Fauci committed a felony on each of those three occasions, and it’s disappointing that he has not been held accountable,” Professor Ebright said.

“Lying to Congress is a felony and the penalty is five years in prison; there have been at least three instances”.

All the scientists involved in writing the suspect paper along with Dr Fauci and other senior US health bureaucrats have denied any wrongdoing, arguing the private correspondence reflected their rapidly evolving views.

US intelligence agencies remain publicly split over whether the lab leak or natural emergencies theories is the more likely explanation, although they have failed to declassify their internal investigations, despite a March law signed by President Joe Biden requiring them to do so by June.

Sharri Markson provided evidence in The Weekend Australian that Sars-Cov2 may have emerged accidentally as result of Chinese government research into coronavirus vaccines, based on interviews with former US assistant health secretary Robert Kadlec.

Professor Ebright said the best scientific evidence that Sar-Cov2 emerged from research activities was not the recent batch of incriminating private messages, but two sets of research funding documents released in 2021, which laid out the Wuhan lab’s progress in producing new viruses with remarkable similarities to Sars-Cov2.

“These projects were virus discovery, virus enhancement and virus characterisation … they showed that by 2018 the researchers had achieved their aim of constructing novel viruses that have a highly enhanced ability to infect and replicate in human cells,” he said.

“One now has essentially a full step by step outline of the steps that would be required to create the virus we know as Sars-Cov2,” he added, pointing out the viruses that had been created, according to the research funding documents, were 10,000 times more lethal and infectious than those found naturally.

Professor Ebright also said hot mic comments that emerged on Monday, where some Australian journalists privately conceded at a press conference, seemingly grudgingly, that Ms Markson’s reporting on the origin of Covid-19 was correct, was “her vindication”.

“Listening to them, it is just clear how dismissive they are and how difficult it is for them to acknowledge that they were the gullible ones not she,” he told The Australian.

Jamie Metzl, a scientist who testified before congress in March that Sars-Cov2 more likely than not emerged from a lab, said on Monday (Tuesday AEST) that most journalists had “got the story 100 per cent wrong”

“Every one of them should be scrambling to amend or retract their indefensible previous work,” he said on social media, attaching a link to Markson’s latest series of stories in The Australian.