More results...
UK Health Security Agency’s tool highlights viruses and bacteria, many not yet seen in the country, that could pose biosecurity riskDeadly disease-causing organisms from pathogen families that include bird flu, plague and Ebola pose a threat to health …
The alarm has been raised by experts as the nation marks the fifth anniversary of the introduction of lockdown Key scientific lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic are being forgotten, UK scientists have warned.The researchers have raised the al…
World Happiness Report 2024 finds volunteering more frequent in most regions as Finland tops chart again and Costa Rica and Mexico enter top 10The world experienced a “benevolence bump” of kindness during the Covid-19 pandemic that has remained, with g…
The pandemic forced many people in England and Wales to reflect how they might die with dignity, and the numbers of those wanting to die at home is on the riseWhen Marlene Viggers was told her newly diagnosed cancer was untreatable, she said she wanted…
TOP lawmakers are demanding the UK government launch a probe into the origins of Covid after The Sun’s documentary on the lab leak scandal.
As Britain marks five years since the Covid pandemic was declared, an exclusive documentary by The Sun reveals the experts, scientists and investigators who believe the virus was caused by a lab leak.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been at the centre of the storm over the origins of Covid[/caption]
The Sun’s new documentary reveals experts, scientists and investigators believe the virus was caused by a lab leak at Wuhan’s Institute of Virology[/caption]
NHS staff wearing PPE in the intensive care unit at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, May 2020[/caption]
It takes us to heart of the origins of Covid and explores whether China was trying to cover up the creation of a biological weapon by blaming the pandemic on a wet food market 17 miles away.
While US Congress revealed a lab leak is the most likely cause of the pandemic and German’s foreign intelligence says the evidence shows the same, the UK has not yet launched any probe into the origins.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith blasted governments for being “frightened” of investigating the issue.
As the UK Covid-19 Inquiry grinds on for its third year, Sir Iain told The Sun: “The one question we should be asking is, how in hell’s name did this happen in the first place?”
And Lord David Alton said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should be held to account for the Covid pandemic.
He told The Sun: “That belief has been re-enforced by the mounting evidence of culpability.”
Lord Alton blasted Western leaders for “pandering to the CCP rather than demanding accountability” – and joined calls for PM Keir Starmer to launch a probe into the origins.
Tory MP Esther McVey said a UK-led independent investigation should be “an upmost priority”.
She told The Sun: “I’m mystified no one has looked into this so far. Now is the right time.
“When you look at the scale of the damage it’s caused to the world, of course we need an independent inquiry into what happened. If we don’t know the source of the last one, how can we be prepared?
“It is essential that the British government get to the bottom of how it came about.”
Years after a pandemic was declared, the world still has no answers about the origins of the virus that has left more than seven million people dead.
The CIA, FBI and the US Department of Energy have all backed a lab leak as the most likely explanation – with many pointing the finger at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
China‘s Wuhan lab has been at the centre of the storm since Covid emerged just miles from the facility – which was famous for its research on bat coronaviruses.
China’s ability to ignore rules has led to millions dying. There needs to be some accountability here… there’s almost a sort of official ignorance about it
Sir Iain Duncan Smith
Many believe Covid – which had signs of genetic engineering – leaked from the US-funded lab during risky virus tests.
But China has refused to cooperate with any full-scale probe into the origins – leaving the world still searching for the truth.
Sir Iain, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, told The Sun: “China’s ability to ignore rules has led to millions dying. There needs to be some accountability here. And there has been none.
“It’s peculiar. This is a case of a terrible disease, responsible for the deaths of very many people.
“And yet there’s almost a sort of official ignorance about it. There’s a desire not to know anything that went on beyond our boundaries.
“It was just governments were frightened of raising it and didn’t want it to go anywhere.”
When you look at the scale of the damage it’s caused to the world, of course we need an independent inquiry into what happened
MP Esther McVey
When Australia called on China to launch a full inquiry into where the virus came from, the country was slapped with punishing tariffs, Sir Iain said.
He claimed Australia was “left to take the brunt of this”.
“Any time anybody talks about this, any country talks about it, China cracks down on them,” Sir Iain said.
Although Britain launched the UK Covid-19 Inquiry in June 2022, it has barely scratched the surface on the question of the origins.
Iain Duncan Smith said China’s ‘ability to ignore rules has led to millions dying’[/caption]
Esther McVey said a UK-led independent investigation into the origins should be ‘an upmost priority’[/caption]
Our documentary also explores whether China was trying to cover up the creation of a biological weapon by blaming the pandemic on a wet market 17 miles away[/caption]
Former Congressman Brad Wenstrup, who chaired the committee investigating the origins of Covid, and The Sun’s Imogen Braddick in Ohio[/caption]
It has delved into the response and impact of the pandemic in a bid to learn lessons for the future.
But Sir Iain said questions should be asked about how the pandemic even happened in the first place.
He added: “We are meandering on through the pointlessness of their questions. And the one question we should have been asking is, how in hell’s name did this happen in the first place?
“This inquiry doesn’t want to ask that – which does seem bizarre.
“China basically controlled all of the story about this. They’ve shut the book… and nobody’s allowed to look at this at all. Nobody’s allowed to ask questions.”
China basically controlled all of the story about this. They’ve shut the book… and nobody’s allowed to look at this at all. Nobody’s allowed to ask questions
Sir Iain Duncan Smith
Sir Iain blasted the UK government for “trying to do more and more business with China and deeper links”.
China is Britain’s fifth-largest trading partner – and invests significant sums in our universities.
Sir Iain said: “You can see why politicians are saying, ‘oh, let’s not go there’. They don’t want to upset China. Normally, you would want to interrogate this.
“A disease that killed millions of people, and we’re not allowed to ask about how it happened?”
Speaking about The Sun’s new documentary The Covid Files: Inside the Wuhan lab leak scandal, he said: “They’re important because they stir the debate up again.
“The fact is that there is still an unanswered question. Why do people not want to know?
“It means next time around, we’ll probably repeat the same mess.”
Sir Iain said he would keep raising the issue as it “demonstrates the danger of China to everybody”.
“They behave as though no rule applies to them whatsoever,” he said.
Lord Alton highlighted the bravery of Zhang Zhan, a Chinese journalist who went to Wuhan “to ask all the difficult questions about the origins of Covid” – and was jailed for doing so.
I think it is a disgrace that so little has been done
Bob Seely
He said: “Her courage stands in stark contrast to the silence of so many Western government officials who spend their lives pandering to the CCP rather than demanding accountability for the deaths of more than seven million people – and probably many more that were undocumented.”
Former Conservative MP Bob Seely said that The Sun’s documentary “completely shows why the Wuhan lab leak theory is now the most plausible explanation for Covid”.
He said: “I think it is a disgrace that so little has been done.”
Before Covid emerged in Wuhan, there were a very limited number of laboratories in the world working on coronaviruses.
One of these was the Wuhan Institute of Virology – located just 40 minutes from the wet market where some of the first Covid cases emerged.
DRASTIC, an international team of scientists and sleuths investigating Covid’s origins, found that the lab had an extensive collection of bat coronaviruses – immediately raising concerns about a potential lab leak.
Led by Chinese scientist Shi Zhengli – dubbed “Batwoman” for her work on bat coronaviruses -they hunted for SARS-like viruses, hoping to identify pathogens in the wild which could pose a risk to humanity in the future.
The researchers identified hundreds of new bat coronaviruses by catching bats in caves, taking samples from them and then shipping the samples back to Wuhan lab – thousands of miles away.
There, the lab has a published record of souping up viruses to make them more dangerous in order to understand pandemic pathogens and how they work – also known as gain-of-function research.
It involves experiments that make already dangerous viruses more virulent or transmissible.
Western government officials… spend their lives pandering to the CCP rather than demanding accountability for the deaths of more than seven million people – and probably many more that were undocumented
Lord David Alton
By late 2019, when the pandemic broke out, Shi’s team had created a dozen or so “chimeric” viruses – by swapping and stitching ingredients to test which bat coronaviruses could infect humans.
This so-called “gain-of-function” research is controversial and banned in many countries – including the United States under Barack Obama.
Following the pandemic, many scientists and biosafety experts called for a global ban on this type of research.
Yet others believe it’s necessary to help prevent the next pandemic.
Jamie Metzl, a WHO adviser who worked under Biden, said the “entire world must demand absolute transparency from the Chinese government”.
He said China “has done everything possible to block any meaningful international investigation into the origins issue”.
“This aggressive malfeasance puts the entire world at risk,” he added.
The former adviser – who has been vocal on the possibility of a lab leak – called for “a comprehensive and unfettered investigation into the origins issue”.
The Sun’s Imogen Braddick and US Right to Know’s investigative reporter Emily Kopp in Washington[/caption]
Imogen Braddick and Justin Goodman from White Coat Waste Project[/caption]
Joint analysis of measles cases reveals Covid pandemic resulted in misinformation and vaccination delaysCases of measles doubled last year in the European region, climbing to the highest level in nearly three decades, after the Covid-19 pandemic caused…
GERMANY’S spy bosses believe there is a 80 to 90 per cent chance that Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese lab, a report claims.
Foreign-focused spooks in Berlin made the bombshel…
CLASSIFIED intelligence on the outbreak of Covid immediately “set off alarm bells”, a former US State Department investigator said.
Arms control expert Thomas DiNanno was warned not to “open a can of worms” by probing the ori…
Suggestion he pressured MHRA to approve ventilators for NHS is ‘ludicrous’, former minister says Continue reading…
IN the early days of the pandemic, any debate on the origins of Covid – and whether it was lab leak – was aggressively silenced.
When America’s top virologist dared to question whether the virus was natural, he was blasted with death threats, labelled a racist and sent envelopes of white powder.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology was thrust into the spotlight after a mystery virus emerged just miles from the facility[/caption]
A mountain of circumstantial evidence pointing to a Wuhan lab leak has piled up year after year[/caption]
Former Congressman Brad Wenstrup, who chaired the committee investigating the origins of Covid, and The Sun’s Imogen Braddick in Ohio[/caption]
Thanks to the outrageous lack of investigation by governments, it’s taken the tenacity of a small group of journalists, scientists and whistleblowers to painstakingly uncover clues.
After investigating the origins for nearly five years, I spoke to some of them about for The Sun’s new documentary The Covid Files: Inside the Wuhan lab-leak scandal.
As a mountain of circumstantial evidence pointing to a lab leak has piled up year after year, a search for an animal origin has been fruitless.
After interviewing scientists, top government advisers, intelligence officials, whistleblowers and campaigners, I believe Covid most likely accidentally leaked from a lab.
And I’m not alone.
This year, after endless months of trying to find the truth about where Covid came from, the CIA finally revealed that it believes Covid did leak from a lab in China.
It marks a huge turning point after years of denial – following in the footsteps and conclusions of the FBI and the Department of Energy.
Former government investigator David Asher told me the classified intelligence on the origins “would make your head explode”.
And Dr Robert Redfield, the former head of America’s top health agency, said: “Our intelligence community knows a lot more than what’s in the public domain.”
The CIA admit having inconclusive evidence – but that applies to any of us trying to investigate the origins.
We are trying to piece together where Covid came from as China still refuses to cooperate.
And closer to home in the US, we discovered an apparent cover-up by some of the scientific community in a desperate bid to keep funding flowing and avoid damaging reputations.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this thing looked supernatural
David Asher
It turned out that the US government was funding the lab in Wuhan – and the exact type of research that many believe sparked the pandemic.
And – although it took several years – the American virus-hunting firm that was working with the Chinese lab has now been banned from receiving any more taxpayer cash.
Biosafety activist group White Coat Waste’s Justin Goodman rightly pointed out that all money leaves a paper trail.
It marked a tiny win in the fight to find the origins of Covid.
But there are still many unanswered questions – and no conclusive evidence.
As part of my own reporting, I travelled from the UK to Washington and Ohio to speak to the individuals who were in the White House with Donald Trump during the pandemic – and the people fighting for answers today.
As the world was grappling with a mystery virus in April 2020, Trump stood at a podium and uttered the words “lab leak”.
Blasted as a conspiracy theory by Anthony Fauci – America’s top doc at the time – the possibility of a lab leak was immediately shut down.
Anyone who challenged the idea that the mystery virus ravaging the world may not have come from a busy wet market in Wuhan was ridiculed.
One of those who stuck their head above the parapet and pushed for an investigation into a potential lab leak was Dr Robert Redfield.
As the head of the Centers for Disease Control of Prevention at the time, Dr Redfield told me what I’ve heard time and time again – the mystery virus swirling in Wuhan was “ready-made” to infect humans.
If the DEFUSE proposal had been patented, Covid would violate that patent. That is how closely the genome of the virus matches what is proposed in that grant
Emily Kopp
This, scientists say, was an immediate red flag that something was not right.
Viruses that spill over from nature usually take a long time to mutate as they move through different species.
When Covid emerged, it spread like wild fire.
As former State Department adviser David Asher told me: “It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this thing looked supernatural.”
Speaking to us at his Maryland home, Dr Redfield said the fact that it was “ready-made” for humans immediately raised alarm bells for him.
With the lab’s close links to the Chinese military, the top doc believes the virus was being designed as part of a vaccine programme.
This meant it needed to be highly infectious, asymptomatic and does not create long-term immunity – the exact same features as Covid, Dr Redfield pointed out.
The Sun’s Imogen Braddick and US Right to Know’s investigative reporter Emily Kopp in Washington[/caption]
In his words, it was “very purposeful research” with a key goal in mind.
For Dr Redfield, a string of decisions at the Wuhan lab in September 2019 also raised concerns.
This included handing over control to the military, deleting the lab’s database of sequences in a “highly irregular” move, and putting out a contract for a new ventilation system.
Unclassified intelligence also revealed a potential clue – researchers at the Wuhan lab fell sick in late 2019 with Covid-like symptoms.
And US scientists – in collaboration with the lab – planned to engineer viruses with the same unique features of Covid.
Some described this proposal – called DEFUSE – as the “smoking gun”.
Many have told me it is the “blueprint” for the virus that ravaged the world.
Investigative journalist Emily Kopp said: “If the DEFUSE proposal had been patented, Covid would violate that patent.
“That is how closely the genome of the virus matches what is proposed in that grant.”
Some have dismissed the growing pile of circumstantial evidence as coincidental.
But it’s very simple to connect the dots – especially when an animal origin has never been found.
As former Congressman Brad Wenstrup told me from his office in Ohio: “How can you not rule it out?”
Brad Wenstrup chaired the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and ruled that Covid was likely a lab leak in his final report[/caption]
The Sun spoke to Robert Redfield, the former director of the CDC, at his home in Maryland[/caption]
Yet as evidence and clues have trickled out, it appears there has been an astounding effort to suppress the possibility of a lab leak.
“I’m not joking when I call it ‘Wuhangate’ or ‘Watergate of Medicine’,” Mr Asher boldly claimed.
“I mean, Watergate was nothing.”
As the world came to a standstill and bodies piled up in March 2020, a group of virologists published a paper now referred to as Proximal Origins.
Examining whether the virus spilled over naturally or came from a lab, the virologists concluded it was “not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus”.
The hugely influential paper was read three million times within weeks of publication.
Science writer Matt Ridley – co-author of Viral on the origins of Covid – told me that it even convinced him.
And it was this paper that helped push the lab leak theory – and any scientific debate over the origins – to the outer fringes.
But we now know that some of the virologists who wrote the paper had their doubts about a natural origin.
Through Freedom of Information requests, Kopp got her hands on Slack messages.
It revealed that some of the authors were speaking privately about the possibility of a lab leak before the paper was published.
Scientist Kristian Anderson – one of the authors – said a lab origin was “friggin likely”.
Another author, Eddie Holmes, said Covid “seemed to have been pre-adapted for human spread since the get go”.
They privately admitted there was “strange research going on”. Yet the paper failed to acknowledge a lab leak as a hypothesis at all.
And publicly, the authors dismissed a lab leak as a conspiracy theory.
The question is, why?
I have long asked why certain individuals don’t want to find out what caused this catastrophic pandemic – and what it is they could possibly be hiding.
The experts I spoke to believe it boils down to money and reputation.
In the years since the publication of the paper, thousands of people – including scientists – have signed a petition calling for it to be retracted.
The paper has been described as an attempt to cover-up the lab leak theory – forming part of a wider campaign designed to shame anybody who questioned the so-called scientific consensus.
Thousands of other documents and emails – uncovered by US Right to Know – appear to reveal a carefully crafted plan by top scientists to ignore the possibility Covid may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan.
Lord Ridley described the situation as “extraordinary”.
And Mr Asher, who has led major US State Department investigations, told me: “One person’s conspiracy is another person’s strategy.”
Although we still don’t know the truth, it appears, as Dr Redfield says, that the tide has been slowly turning and the mainstream consensus is now that this was a lab leak.
For the families of the seven million dead, we must fight for answers – regardless of where the virus came from.
As Kopp told me, it will take political will and a public outcry, but the enormity of the pandemic demands that we try.
So, we have to try.
With Trump as president and the CIA backing a lab leak, will the truth finally come out?
Assistant Foreign Editor Imogen Braddick and Justin Goodman from White Coat Waste Project[/caption]
The Sun spoke to Dr Li-Meng Yan, a Chinese virologist, at a secret location in the United States[/caption]