SPEAKING OUT

Only Foreign Wuhan Lab Scientist Plays Down Lab-Leak Theory

Danielle Anderson says she never contracted COVID-19 and says it’s most likely the virus originated from a natural source.

Danielle Anderson, reportedly the only foreign scientist who was working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology before the coronavirus outbreak began, told Bloomberg News in an interview that she never contracted COVID-19 while working at the facility in late 2019. “If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick—and I wasn’t,” said Anderson, an Australian virologist. “I was tested for coronavirus in Singapore before I was vaccinated, and had never had it.” Anderson worked at the facility in November 2019 and traveled to Singapore with other scientists who worked at the facility, and recalled no one ever testing positive for the virus. “There was no chatter,” Anderson told Bloomberg. “Scientists are gossipy and excited. There was nothing strange from my point of view going on at that point that would make you think something is going on here.” Anderson said she believes the virus most likely came from a natural source but added that it is possible for viruses to spread from labs. “I’m not naive enough to say I absolutely write this off,” Anderson said of a possible leak.