A report based on unidentified U. S. government resources. The U. S. Department of Defense says in-house researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were the first to be infected with the virus that then sparked a pandemic and killed millions of people worldwide.
The report published in Public quotes “several U. S. government officials. “Ben Hu, who led WIV’s studies on the coronavirus, is among the “zero patients” who contracted the SARS-CoV-2 virus in November 2019. .
Sources told Public that Hu, Yu Ping and Yan Zhu, all from WIV, would be the first to ignite with Covid-19.
If confirmed, the report would appear to refute the long-standing theory that the virus did not leak from the Wuhan coronavirus lab, but emerged from a nearby rainy market where exotic meats such as pangolin are sold.
The so-called “lab leak theory” was floated early in the pandemic, but was dismissed by officials, experts and members of the media.
Adding to the confusion, conflicting reports over the years have supported speculation of a lab leak and the narrative of a virus emerging zoonotically from the rain market.
The public report bears the signatures of journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag.
“When a source asked how confident they were that this was the identity of the 3 WIV scientists who developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in the fall of 2019, they told us ‘100 percent,'” it reads.
Representatives for WIV did not respond to a request for comment.