Email documents obtained by the US Right to Know, in possession of The Daily Guardian, reveal that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) “has many bat samples not yet worked out or results published”.
Ohio State University virologist Shan-Lu Liu, who has collaborated with WIV’s “Bat Woman” Professor Shi Zhengli, in a letter to Susan Weiss, coronavirologist at the University of Pennsylvania, on 16 February 2020 states: “I have looked at carefully the RaTG13 sequence, and it is unlikely from it–also see attached file. But we cannot rule out the possibility of other bat viruses from the lab. The Wuhan lab has many bat samples not yet worked out or results published. There are some concerns that some of their samples may not have been handled properly and leaked out of the lab; but just a possibility. Right now, it’s hard to say an intermediate host or directly from bats, I guess.”
Susan Weiss in an email to Shan-Lu Liu states: “I don’t think it is likely that bat virus leaked into humans in the lab—is there any evidence that someone from the Wuhan lab is infected? Also in general the bat viruses that have been identified by sequence sand are not actually isolated viruses. RRAR is a good if not excellent furin site, similar to MERS—MHV A59 is RRAHR, MHV JHM is RRARR (a very good one)–lineage B Bat viruses generally do not have the furin site. I doubt very much it was engineered in the lab. Doesn’t make sense. I wonder if there is some compromise
position re the name—the formal name I think has to be SARS-CoV-2, but maybe can be referred to Covid-19 informally—if you look at the internet, WHO is calling it Covid-19.”
Shan-Lu Liu was one of the Chinese scientists in the US who consulted with Prof Shi Zhengli on the February 26, 2020 commentary in Emerging Microbes and Infections (EMI), which tried to rebut the theory that the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab. In February 2020, WIV scientists reported discovering the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2, a bat coronavirus called RaTG13. RaTG13 has become central to the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from wildlife.
However, key questions persist about the provenance of RaTG13 and about the reliability of the WIV scientists’ claims about the closest known bat coronavirus relatives of SARS-CoV-2. The journal Nature did not assess the reliability of important claims made in a November 17 addendum to a study on the bat-origins of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, correspondence with Nature staff suggests.
On 3 February 2020, Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists reported discovering the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2, a bat coronavirus called RaTG13. RaTG13 has become central to the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 originated in wildlife. The addendum addresses unanswered questions about the provenance of RaTG13. The authors clarified they found RaTG13 in 2012-2013 “in an abandoned mineshaft in Mojiang County, Yunnan Province,” where six miners suffered acute respiratory distress syndrome after exposure to bat feces, and three died. Investigations of the symptoms of the sickened miners could provide important clues about the origins of SARS-CoV-2. The scientists reported finding no SARS-related coronaviruses in stored serum samples of the sick miners, but they did not support their claims with data and methods about their assays and experimental controls.
Scientists have posited that SARS-CoV-2 may be a product of WIV’s experiments on an unpublished bat coronavirus that is more closely related to SARS-CoV-2 than RaTG13. “First, SARS-CoV-2 may have evolved in bats, which are known reservoirs of immense coronavirus diversity, and then spread directly, or indirectly via an intermediate host, to humans through natural mechanisms. The degree of anticipated but undiscovered natural diversity clearly lends support to this scenario, as well as support to other scenarios. Second, SARS-CoV-2 or a recent ancestor virus may have been collected by humans from a bat or other animal and then brought to a laboratory where it was stored knowingly or unknowingly, propagated and perhaps manipulated genetically to understand its biological properties and then released accidentally.“
WIV’s authorities shut down outside access to its virus database in September 2019, thereby, making it difficult to verify that “the Wuhan lab has many bat samples not yet worked out or results published. There are some concerns that some of their samples may not have been handled properly and leaked out of the lab.”
Shi Zhengli has denied speculations that her lab was working in secret on other bat viruses. In an interview with Science magazine in July 2020, Shi wrote: “We tested all bat samples that we collected, including bat anal swabs, oral swabs, and fecal samples, and 2,007 samples were positive for coronavirus. We did not find any viruses whose gene sequence is more similar to SARS-CoV-2 than RaTG13.” The truth lies at Wuhan Virology Lab and in between Shi Zhengli, Peter Dazzak, and Ralph Baric.
