Mystery Chinese lab ‘was conducting secret experiments to soup up coronaviruses’

A MYSTERY lab in Wuhan conducted secret experiments to clone and soup up coronaviruses to infect humans, a bombshell study has revealed.

For the last three years, a group of scientists have been combing through online databases and other sources of evidence for vital clues about the origins of Covid.

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Adrian Jones, Daoyu Zhang, Louis Nemzer, Steven Massey, Yuri Deigin, and Steven Quay have now found fresh evidence of an unreported lab-grown coronavirus in Wuhan.

While the discovery can’t be directly linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology or linked directly to Covid, it offers a chilling insight into the highly dangerous experiments being undertaken in Wuhan before the pandemic which has so far killed nearly 7million people.

Speaking to The Sun Online, Dr Quay likened the discovery to finding more corpses from a serial killer and is another key clue in the hunt for the origins of Covid.

The experts were leafing through an old database when they spotted a rogue lab-made coronavirus lurking in the background.

They discovered the coronavirus genome had infected a rice sample – something the scientists claim is not possible in nature.

Experts said the bombshell discovery suggests someone was experimenting with bat coronaviruses in a lab in Wuhan – just before Covid first emerged in late 2019.

It shows risky work was taking place on dangerous pathogens right before a pandemic caused by very similar pathogens, experts said.

And it could be just one of possibly hundreds of unreported coronaviruses known to labs in the Chinese city.

Even if the discovery can’t be linked directly to WIV, the scientists said it shows a group of researchers were testing and modifying bat coronaviruses in the city in 2019.

In fact, it appears the exact risky “gain of function” research that may have led to Covid leaking from a lab was carried out on a secret bat coronavirus in Wuhan, experts said.

Dr Quay branded the undocumented engineered MERS-related virus as a “textbook experiment in gain of function”.

So-called “gain of function” work involves extracting viruses from animals to engineer in a lab to make them more transmissible and deadly to humans.

“It demonstrates motive, opportunity and capability to have caused the Covid pandemic,” Dr Quay told The Sun Online.

“It is the norm, not the exception.

“When a serial killer is finally arrested, the next step is finding the previous bodies buried in shallow graves. This is that moment for Covid.”

The rogue coronavirus genome hiding in the rice sample was tucked away inside something called a “bacterial artificial chromosome”.

These are used to clone coronaviruses in labs – which allows scientists to genetically modify viruses to see how well they infect human cells or humanised mice.

Dr Quay said the study shows “synthetic biology work” was being done on an unknown MERS virus – a much deadlier disease than Covid.

It demonstrates motive, opportunity and capability to have caused the Covid pandemic

Dr Steven Quay

“Someone or group of people in the lab were using the modern tools of what is called reverse genetics to make a virus from scratch, literally from bottles of chemicals on a shelf,” Dr Quay explained.

He said the analysis of the samples by the lab in Wuhan would have been done at “shocking” low-level biosafety levels – meaning the dangerous pathogen could have “contaminated” the lab.

“Our findings on a MERS virus show that unpublished, gain-of-function research on deadly coronaviruses was being conducted,” he said.

“It also documents significant contamination of the sequencing equipment, reagents, and facilities at a low biosafety level.”

The scientists said the bat coronavirus appears to be “closely related” to those published by Shi Zhengli – the scientist at the heart of the Wuhan Institute of Virology known as “Batwoman”.

But Dr Quay said MERS and SARS “are deadly cousins of each other but not, in any sense, viral twins” – meaning it could not have sparked the Covid pandemic.

However, biologist Steve Massey warned “the accidental release of such a virus would have unpredictable and potentially catastrophic consequences”.

He described the sample as “a souped-up bat coronavirus” with MERS-like characteristics.

And he added: “The link to the WIV is likely, but not proven.”

Experts claim the Wuhan Institute of Virology endangered the world by carrying out “gain of function” experiments to engineer chimeric viruses.

The Chinese lab has repeatedly denied that Covid leaked from their lab.

The accidental release of such a virus would have unpredictable and potentially catastrophic consequences

Steve Massey

But Dr Richard Ebright claimed the study shows that the lab was “performing enhanced potential pandemic pathogens research”.

The biosafety expert told The Sun Online it highlights how the lab had “unpublished infectious clones” from its research on bat coronaviruses – adding to suspicions around its work.

He described the findings of the study as “sound and important”.

Biologist Washburne added that scientists can’t be 100 per cent sure the lab-made coronavirus wasn’t created at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

He said “someone is not telling us the full truth about coronavirus research activities in Wuhan”.

In his Substack, he explained: “The database of coronaviruses at the WIV was taken offline in the fall of 2019, so we can’t confirm that coronavirus BAC clone lurking behind a rice genome is not one of theirs.

“It looks as if the exact research many hypothesise led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2 was conducted on an unpublished bat coronavirus in Wuhan, and, rather than being disclosed, that bat coronavirus had to be uncovered by sleuths.

“Why haven’t WIV shared their database with the world? Is this one of their coronaviruses? What other unreported coronaviruses existed in Wuhan labs in 2019?

“The predictable discovery of suspicious coronavirus genomes like this one is why myself and others are calling for transparency from all coronavirus researchers, especially those studying coronaviruses at Wuhan or in collaboration with Wuhan labs.”

The database of rice samples was published by Huazhong Agricultural University – located in Wuhan – months before the pandemic.

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