4 Hrs at Lab, 60 Mins in Wet Market: How Authentic is WHO's Clean Chit to China on Virus Origins
News 18A team commissioned by the World Health Organization to investigate the source of the coronavirus in Wuhan in January concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” that the pathogen originated in a top-security lab in the ground-zero Chinese city. Here are some key facts about the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s lab: High Security The institute houses a lab with a biosafety rating of “P4” — the highest possible — which is determined by the level of danger and resulting security measures posed by the pathogens studied there. Subsequent checks revealed that its gene sequence differed from viruses held at the lab, and Shi said she would “bet her life” that there was no leak, according to Chinese state media. The team’s leader Peter Ben Embarek said at the end of the mission that the lab-leak theory was “extremely unlikely” and “not in the hypotheses that we will suggest for future studies.” The mission found nothing to overturn the general consensus within the scientific community that the pathogen appeared to be of natural origin.