The Trump administration wants to know that the virus escaped from a Chinese lab

Have at least two million people worldwide been infected with a new virus after it spread from animal to human in a poorly controlled exotic animal market in Wuhan? The most common lecture about the emergence of the pandemic was already disastrous for the Chinese authorities from a PR point of view. The badly hit United States is now drawing attention to an even more damaging theory for Beijing: the suggestion that SARS-CoV-2 may have escaped from a biomedical laboratory in Wuhan.

Chances are that it is never completely clear how the virus reached humans. That fact leaves room for conspiracy theories, one of which is persistent about the lab in Wuhan. On Wednesday, US President Trump and his foreign minister Pompeo called on the Chinese to be “open” about this. The origins of this global outbreak have thus become the focus of a high-profile geopolitical propaganda battle.

The question of debt probably makes little difference to the further course of this pandemic, but it certainly does not matter to the image of China in the rest of the world. Gross negligence in a prestigious lab where dozens of other sars-like viruses are stored would cost China more reputational damage than poor hygiene in a market.

Apart from the black pete, it is important to know everything possible about the origin of the disease, in order to prevent that an animal-borne virus can again cause so many victims in the future.

Concerned diplomats, in 2018

There are no hard facts for the lab lecture. But after previously the Trump administration and its friendly media such as Fox News pointed to supposed indications, progressive media such as The Washington Post and The Atlantic the story as a serious possibility.

The Post holds official messages that American diplomats in China sent back to Washington in early 2018. They were alarmed after a visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which was partly funded with American money. In their memos, classified as “sensitive, but not confidential,” they express concerns about vulnerabilities in the security and management of the IPH. In 2015, this was the first lab in China to obtain the highest degree of safety BSL 4.

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Among other things, research has been conducted into coronaviruses in bats for years. This is aimed at preventing another sars outbreak, like the world experienced in 2003. Important, but also dangerous research. And in 2015, a group of researchers asked themselves in a scientific journal Nature already wondering if too many risks were taken in Wuhan.

In the first diplomatic memo, dated January 2018, the Americans explicitly expressed concerns about this bat investigation. During their visit to the IPH, they saw “a serious shortage of well-trained technicians and researchers to safely manage this very closed lab”. A virus, they warn, could spread to humans and lead to a new sars-like pandemic. They therefore advocated more American support for the lab.

About a second visit by the American diplomats, on March 27, 2018, the IPH published a news item on its website, which has recently been removed. The report, which can still be found, states that Rick Switzer, technology and health adviser at the United States Embassy in Beijing, had an “in-depth discussion” with institute employees to “understand the demands of both sides”. According to the Post, there has been no additional American aid after the official reports.

Chinese propaganda

On the Chinese side, too, a wild theory has circulated about the origins of the pandemic for a while. In mid-March, Zhao Lijian, a very outspoken spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, suggested that US military personnel have taken the virus to Wuhan. “The US owes us an explanation!”, tweeted he. The rumor went down when Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to Washington, called the theory “madness” in an interview. It is unclear to what extent the two officials in these contradictory statements have been driven by the party leaders.

On Thursday, Zhao said that the World Health Organization (WHO) has “repeatedly stated that there is no evidence that the new virus was created in a laboratory.” That statement will be of little value to President Trump: he suspended US funding from WHO on Tuesday because he thinks China has the organization in his pocket. He holds both WHO and China responsible for the magnitude of the pandemic.

Connection with the animal market

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So far, the first manifestation of Covid-19 in humans is known to have many patients who visited the Huanan animal market in Wuhan. According to Chinese research published in The Lancet two thirds of the 41 first hospital patients had a connection with the market. But that idea is not entirely satisfactory, because the first known patient, who already reported to a hospital on December 1, has not been on the market.

However, there is no indication that the virus was created in the lab, let alone released on purpose for biological warfare. US intelligence agencies still believe the outbreak is likely to have a natural origin, US general Mark Milley, chairman of the unified chiefs of staff, said Tuesday.

But that the virus does not come from the WIV lab is therefore not excluded. And the leader of the conscious bat research was also initially awake, she told the magazine in mid-March Scientific American. This Shi Zhengli, nicknamed “Bat Woman”, was afraid that the virus had escaped from her lab. After genetic research comparing the now prevailing SARS-Cov-2 with samples in her own lab, she was able to say, she was relieved, that this was not the case.

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