Wuhan: Video footage has shown that bats live in cages at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, disproving previous denials from World Health Organization investigators that the claim was ‘a conspiracy’. Video promoting the launch of China’s first biosafety level 4 laboratory in May 2017 highlights the security precautions that will be in place in case of ‘an accident,’ as well as the ‘intense clashes’ between Chinese, and French governments during its construction.
In the video, scientists show a bat being fed a worm, while a cage of bats is shown at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The 10-minute-long video is titled ‘The construction and research team of Wuhan P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and features interviews with its leading scientists’. According to the WHO investigation into the origins of the virus, no bats had been kept at the Wuhan Institute of Virology—only its annex refers to animals being held there.
‘The animal room in the P4 facility can handle a variety of species, including primate work with SARS-CoV-2,’ it states. Zoologist Peter Daszak, a member of the World Health Organization team investigating the pandemic in Wuhan, claimed there was a conspiracy to suggest bats were being held at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In one tweet dated December 2020, he said: ‘No BATS were sent to Wuhan lab for genetic analysis of viruses collected in the field. That’s now how this science works. We collect bat samples, send them to the lab. We RELEASE bats where we catch them!’
On December 11, 2020, he tweeted: ‘This is a widely circulated conspiracy theory. This piece describes work I’m the lead on and labs I’ve collaborated with for 15 years. They DO NOT have live or dead bats in them. There is no evidence anywhere that this happened. It’s an error I hope will be corrected.’ Earlier this month, Daszak appeared to retract his earlier denials and admitted the Wuhan Institute of Virology may have housed bats, but that he had not asked them.
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The video was discovered by researchers looking into the origins of the pandemic, who call themselves DRASTIC. ‘Jesse’, a digital archivist, discovered the video, while the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ coordinator, Billy Bostickson, has long argued that bats were housed in Wuhan’s laboratories. The video is part of the investigation for the book ‘What Really Happened in Wuhan’, which is currently available for pre-order at Amazon and Booktopia. No comment has been received from Mr. Daszak.
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