Wuhan lab scientists ‘mixed deadliest coronaviruses to create mutant strain’

SCIENTISTS were working with the Chinese military to create a mutant virus and pursue bioweapons just as the pandemic started, investigators believe.

They were running secret dangerous experiments combining the most deadly coronaviruses, which reportedly caused a leak from a Wuhan lab.

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And it is believed vaccine research was going on there in the autumn before the outbreak, pertinent to the Covid-19 vaccination.

The findings follow a team of US investigators who combed through top-secret intercepted communications and research.

They say there is no published information on the work because it was done with researchers from the Chinese military, which was funding the projects. 

Evidence suggested researchers working on the experiments were taken to hospital with Covid-like symptoms in November 2019, just a month before the West became aware of the pandemic.

One relative died as a result, it was reported.

An investigator said: “We were rock-solid confident that this was likely Covid-19.”

The lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which began hunting the origin of Sars viruses in 2003, attracted US-government funding and was shown cutting-edge virus manipulation techniques. 

It reportedly engaged in increasingly risky experiments on coronaviruses it gathered from bat caves, which it initially made public and justified by claiming it could help develop vaccines. 

In 2016, researchers discovered a new fatal type of coronavirus in a mineshaft in Mojiang, Yunnan province.

But they failed to warn the world about it, which was then subsequently transported to the Wuhan lab and the work became classified.

The virus is the only known immediate relative of Covid-19 known to be in existence pre-pandemic. 

One US investigator told The Times: “The trail of papers starts to go dark.

“That’s exactly when the classified programme kicked off. 

“My view is that the reason it was covered up was due to military secrecy related to the army’s pursuit of dual-use capabilities in virological biological weapons and vaccines.”

Investigators claimed it most likely led to Covid-19 and that it leaked into Wuhan after a laboratory accident.

Another added: “It has become increasingly clear that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was involved in the creation, promotion and cover-up of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The findings come after a scientist who worked closely with the Wuhan lab claimed Covid was genetically engineered – and leaked from the facility.

Dr Andrew Huff, former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance, alleged he had a ringside seat to what he brands one of the greatest cover-ups in history.

In his new book – The Truth About Wuhan – whistleblower Dr Huff claimed the pandemic was the result of the US government’s funding of dangerous genetic engineering of coronaviruses in China.

The epidemiologist said China’s gain-of-function experiments – carried out with shoddy biosecurity – led to a lab leak at the US-funded Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“EcoHealth Alliance and foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he said in his book, an exclusive pre-release copy of which was provided to The Sun Online.

EcoHealth Alliance had been studying different coronaviruses in bats for more than ten years with funding from the National Institutes of Health – and developed close working ties with the Wuhan lab.

Dr Huff, who worked at EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016 and served as vice president from 2015, worked on the classified side of the research programme as a US government scientist.

The army veteran, from Michigan, said the organisation taught the Wuhan lab the “best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species” for many years.

He claimed: “China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent.

“The US government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese.”

Dr Huff added: “I was terrified by what I saw. We were just handing them bioweapon technology.”

As of February 2023, deadly virus tests are still taking place that could spark a new pandemic, a top US senator has warned.