Secret memo shows China ordered labs to destroy Covid samples ‘to hide outbreak’

CHINA ordered scientists to destroy all early coronavirus samples from their labs just two days after the world was first told about Covid, a secret memo reveals.

As the pandemic was starting to explode across the world, panicked Beijing ordered the labs to share their samples with the government – or destroy them “on the spot”, the leaked order shows.

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The memo – uncovered and translated by US Right to Know (USRTK) – exposes the Chinese government’s far-reaching crackdown in the early days of the pandemic.

Intelligence officials said the destruction of early samples hampered efforts to trace the virus’ origin – and whether it leaked from a lab in Wuhan.

Many scientists and intelligence officials suspect researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology accidentally spread Covid during risky experiments on bat coronaviruses.

The Chinese government order is dated January 3, 2020 – two days after the world was first made aware of the coronavirus spreading through China and the Huanan wet market was shut down.

It was issued by the National Health Commission – the branch of the State Council in Beijing that oversees health issues.

Some details of the order have been previously reported – but USRTK has now published the entire document for the first time.

The memo ordered all early virus samples to be shared with high-level institutions designated by the government for testing – and then be destroyed.

Any lab that obtained samples before January 3 was ordered to share them with the government or to destroy them “on the spot”.

Beijing vowed to “strengthen law enforcement inspections” and “severely deal with” anyone who ignored the order.

“No institution or individual may release any relevant information to the outside world without authorisation,” it reads.

The order suggests scientists were not allowed to communicate with the public about their findings without government approval.

And it repeatedly emphasised the need to “eliminate safety hazards in a timely manner” – and the importance of ensuring that biosafety is “foolproof”.

Emily Kopp, a reporter at USRTK, said: “We obtained the classified notice that the Chinese government sent to labs ordering them to turn over viral samples or destroy them on the spot in the name of ‘biosafety’.

“The destruction of some of the earliest viral samples has reportedly clouded the US intelligence community’s view of the pandemic’s origin.”

Early samples are vital to piecing together the characteristics of Covid and how the pandemic began.

But Chinese censorship and destruction of material has made it a challenging task for officials probing the origins of Covid.

A mysterious dark database believed to include unpublished samples of data on new viruses and hidden bat samples was also taken offline by China.

Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo, an evolutionary biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, told USRTK: “Having access to additional sequences from the early days would greatly help researchers to infer what happened in Wuhan in 2019 and to distinguish between the different scenarios.”

It comes after emails from the US State Department revealed Wuhan scientists were carrying out classified military research at “shadow labs”.

The leaked messages – also obtained by USRTK – shed more light on the shady links between the Chinese army and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

They reveal the army’s involvement with the construction of the lab – and staff with “possible PLA ties”.

One email exposes the way in which Beijing censored the outbreak of Covid in the vital early days of the pandemic.

“Initial Outbreak Could Have Been Contained in China if Beijing Had Not Covered It Up,” it reads.

Gary Ruskin, executive director of USRTK, described it as a “grave allegation whose basis must be revealed”.

Investigators believe scientists running secret dangerous experiments combining the most deadly coronaviruses, which reportedly caused a leak from a Wuhan lab.

And it is believed vaccine research was going on there in the autumn before the outbreak.

Both China and the Wuhan lab have furiously denied any allegations.

But evidence of a lab leak has been piling up over the last two years as scientists, researchers and governments hunt for answers and step forward with evidence.