Wuhan lab leak theory investigations ongoing, 18 months after the arrival of COVID-19
ABCIt's been a year and five months since Australia recorded its first case of the novel coronavirus, after an infected person who travelled from Wuhan to Melbourne tested positive on January 25, 2020. Former US President Donald Trump said many a time that he was confident COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, claiming it was a possibility "they let it out". Chinese authorities have vehemently denied the possibility of a lab leak since the beginning of the pandemic, with top diplomat Yang Jiechi as recently as last week accusing the US of spreading an "absurd story". But NSW Health medical virologist and infectious disease physician Dominic Dwyer, who spent four weeks in Wuhan in January and February, said authorities in Wuhan had been "pretty open" with the team during its investigation. Top Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli, who works with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, recently slammed the lab leak theory in a brief interview with The New York Times, denouncing the suspicions as "baseless".