LONDON – A Canadian molecular scientist told MPs on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday that a leak from a laboratory in China’s Wuhan region is now the “more likely” source of the Covid-19 worldwide epidemic.
The pandemic was created by a unique feature of the coronavirus termed “furin cleavage site” which has been linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to Dr. Alina Chan, a specialist in gene therapy and cell engineering and co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19′.
When asked by the panel about the likelihood of a lab leak as the cause of the pandemic, Chan responded that “lab origin is more likely than natural origin at this point”
“We all agree that there was a major occurrence at the Huanan Seafood Market, which was a human-caused superspreader event. “There is no evidence that the virus originated in a natural animal at that market,” she said.
When asked how confident she was that the world will eventually figure out the true origins of Covid-19, Chan answered it was just a matter of time.
“Right now, coming forward with information about the origins of this pandemic is not safe.” It could be five years from now, or 50 years from now, but we live in a time where so much data is generated and kept… All we need now is a thorough, serious investigation “she statedIn response to Chan’s question on whether the virus was altered in the lab prior to the breach, he said: “Many top virologists have told us that a genetically engineered genesis for this virus is plausible…and this includes virologists who tinkered with the original SARS virus.
Lord Matt Ridley, her co-author, was also asked similar questions about the lab leak idea, and he agreed with Chan that it was “more likely than\snot” the source of the epidemic.
“We must accept the fact that we discovered the origins of SARS through markets after two months, and we discovered the origins of MERS through camels after a few months. In this situation, we haven’t located a single afflicted animal that could be the pandemic’s progenitor after two years; this is quite shocking “he stated
As he followed the trip of scientists a few years ago to bring SARS-like viruses back to Wuhan for tests, Ridley and Chan agreed that any leak was most likely a “accident”
“It should be taken seriously.” “It’s unfortunate that there was a concerted effort to shut down this topic in 2020,” he said.
“We need to find out so we can prevent the next pandemic,” Ridley added. We need to know whether work in laboratories should be regulated more strictly or whether legislation governing wildlife sales in marketplaces should be regulated more strictly. We aren’t doing either of these things right now.
“We also need to know to deter bad actors who are watching this episode and thinking that unleashing a pandemic is something they could get away with.”
According to the World Health Organization, Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Lancet’ medical magazine, the lab leak scenario underlying Covid-19 is a “hypothesis that needs to be taken\seriously and needs to be investigated further” (WHO).