Page 37 - Resurgemus

The wuhan institute of virology.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences is a research institute
on virology administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Located
in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei, it opened mainland China's first biosafety level
4 (BSL–4) laboratory in 2015.

In January 2020, conspiracy theories circulated that the COVID-19 pandemic
originated from viruses engineered by the WIV, which were refuted on the basis of
scientific evidence that the virus has natural origins. In an opinion column in the
Washington Post, Josh Rogin wrote that US State Department cables from 2018
raised safety concerns about WIV's research on bat coronaviruses. In April 2020,
U.S. intelligence officials launched examinations into unverified reports the virus
may have originated from the accidental exposure by WIV scientists studying natural
coronaviruses in bats.

Leading virologists have disputed the
idea that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from the
institute. The virologist Peter Daszak,
president of the EcoHealth Alliance,
which studies emerging infectious
diseases, has noted estimates that 1-7
million people in Southeast Asia who
live or work in proximity to bats are
infected each year with bat
coronaviruses. In an interview with Vox, Daszak comments, "There are probably half
a dozen people that do work in those labs. So, let's compare 1 million to 7 million
people a year to half a dozen people; it's just not logical." Jonna Mazet, Professor of
epidemiology at the University of California, Davis and director of the PREDICT
project to monitor emerging viruses, has commented that staff at the Wuhan
Institute of Virology were trained at US labs and follow high safety standards, and
that "All of the evidence points to this not being a laboratory accident."

BY: ARON BABU

CLASS: 10 B

#WESHALLRISE

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