‘NO WAY’

Wuhan Lab Hits Back at Rumors It Created the Coronavirus

The theory the virus was man-made clashes with what experts have said: that it started in animals and crossed species.

Leaders of a bioresearch lab in Wuhan, China, have spoken out for the first time to say that they did not create the novel coronavirus—a theory seized upon by some U.S. right-wingers. Yuan Zhiming, director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, told the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, that the virus isn’t man-made at all. Scientists have long said it appears the virus originated in animals and crossed species to infect humans—a scenario that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, backed from the White House stage this week. U.S. intelligence has reportedly investigated the possibility that COVID-19 began in a Chinese lab, but Zhiming says his lab is being smeared by conspiracy theorists: “As people who carry out viral study, we clearly know what kind of research is going on in the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples. As we said early on, there is no way this virus came from us.”