People's Republic of Coronavirus

Why a Chinese virology lab is unable to quell the Chinese coronavirus theories around it

By Jane Li

A Chinese state-owned virology lab in Wuhan, the epicenter of China’s coronavirus epidemic, is finding it extremely hard to quell theories proliferating around the institution—a sign of the sharply decreased level of public trust in the government since the outbreak of the Chinese virus.

At the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a subsidiary of the state-owned research institute the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), scientists carry out virus research at a lab with the highest level of biological containment available on the mainland. 

Its construction was approved in 2003, during China’s last deadly coronavirus outbreak, SARS, and completed five years ago, according to Nature journal. 

The lab came under spotlight in late January, after Chinese scientists said the Chinese virus could have a connection to bats via an intermediary, such as some form of game sold at a seafood market in Wuhan. 

As the lab has researchers who study bat-related viruses, it became a target of online suspicion that coalesced into theories that the Chinese virus could have escaped from the lab, or be a bio-weapon gone wrong.
An unvetted research paper published on Jan. 31 by a group of Indian scientists, in which they claimed similarities between the Chinese virus and the HIV virus, appearing to hint at human engineering, also stirred further controversy surrounding the institute. 

Some journals have appended notes to older stories about the Wuhan lab calling the theories about the lab “unverified.”

However, the rumors have kept spreading widely online, to the extent that Shi Zhengli, a lead researcher on bat-related viruses in the lab, posted on her WeChat account on Feb. 2 that the virus was “a punishment from the nature for humans’ uncivilized life habits,” and said she “guaranteed with her life” it was totally unrelated to the lab. 

But just as Shi’s assurance seemed to have calmed some down, a notice from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology last Saturday (Feb. 15) started a fresh wave of suspicion towards the lab.
The ministry said in the notice that China should enhance its management of viruses and bioagents at all labs and research institutes, without any explanation as to why this is being proposed right now, leaving some to speculate whether this could be a subtle official acknowledgement of a role played by the lab. 

The following day, US senator Tom Cotton appeared on Fox News to say that the Chinese virus was not far from the wildlife market where many people were infected in December.
There are a number of reasons why these theories keep finding many takers—not just among China hawks but among so many in China. 

One is, there’s still so much that isn’t known about the Chinese virus and its origins.“At this stage, no expert can be absolutely certain about the cause of the outbreak. This uncertainty makes it easier for some people to think all explanations have equal merit,” explained assistant professor Masato Kajimoto, who researches information ecosystems in Asia at the University of Hong Kong’s journalism school.

After Shi’s statement, the lab too has stepped out more than once to try quell the theories. 

The institute first rejected speculation that the first patient to be infected with the Chinese virus was a graduate student who studied at the lab, saying on Sunday (Feb. 16) the student is in "good health". 

Yesterday (Feb. 19), it issued a worded statement (link in Chinese), saying the rumors about it have “hurt the feelings of its frontline researchers hugely” and “severely interfered” with its task to study viruses. 

“We have nothing to hide,” the letter read.
Nonetheless, internet users don’t appear to be convinced by the assurances from the lab. 

“What is the truth? The collapse of trustworthiness of media and government is not only sad for the two parties, but also for us citizens,” said a user on Weibo commenting on the rumors. 

“Some might think the so-called rumors are just a prophecy ahead of our times,” said another.
Some “rumors” from the early days of the epidemic after all turned out not to be far from reality. 

Li Wenliang, a doctor, had told others about a cluster of cases of viral pneumonia before the outbreak had been made public, but was summoned by Wuhan police for “spreading rumors.” 

He later became infected himself, and his death turned him into a vivid symbol of the costs of the government’s opacity—prompting an outpouring of anger and grief, and rare public demands for freedom of speech and transparency from the government.
“With the government’s bungled handling of the epidemic in Wuhan, and the pain and uncertainty the epidemic and the efforts to cope with it have produced, public trust has clearly decreased,” said Professor Dali Yang, a political scientist at University of Chicago via email. 

“The death of Dr. Li was a milestone in shared grief in China.”
What now can be done to contain theories of a rogue lab? 

Probably not a whole lot, says Kajimoto.
“When the authorities and experts have the history of not being transparent, whatever they say could sound as if they are trying to hide something,” said the assistant professor. 

“In this case, publicly denying the link between the lab and Chinese coronavirus could even be construed as ‘evidence’ by people who believe in this conspiracy because denial is the ‘sign’ that the truth is hidden.”

Made In China Pandemic

The Chinese coronavirus had leaked from a Chinese virology lab
The lone microbiology lab in China that handles viruses like the Chinese coronavirus is located in Wuhan

By STEVEN W. MOSHER

Chinese women and a child wear protective masks as they walk through a Beijing park after the official cancellation of celebrations of the Chinese New Year and Spring Festival on Jan. 25.

At an emergency meeting in Beijing held last Friday, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping spoke about the need to contain the Chinese coronavirus and set up a system to prevent similar epidemics in the future.
A national system to control biosecurity risks must be put in place “to protect the people’s health,” Xi said, because lab safety is a “national security” issue.
What Xi didn’t say is that the Chinese coronavirus that has sickened more than 79,000 and claimed more than 2,600 lives escaped from one of the country’s bioresearch labs. 
But the very next day, evidence emerged suggesting that this is what happened, as the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology released a new directive entitled “Instructions on strengthening biosecurity management in microbiology labs that handle advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus.”
Read that again.
It sure sounds as if China is conceding there may be a problem keeping dangerous pathogens in test tubes, doesn’t it? 
And just how many “microbiology labs” are there in China that handle “advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus”?
It turns out that in all of China there is only one. 
And this one is located in the Chinese city of Wuhan, which, of course, is the epicenter of the epidemic.
That’s right.
China’s only Level 4 microbiology lab equipped to handle deadly coronaviruses, called the National Biosafety Laboratory, is part of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
What’s more, the People’s Liberation Army’s top expert in biological warfare, Maj. Gen. Chen Wei, was dispatched to Wuhan at the end of January to help with the effort to contain the outbreak.
According to the PLA Daily, Chen has been researching coronaviruses since the SARS outbreak of 2003, as well as Ebola and anthrax.
This would not be her first trip to the Wuhan Institute of Virology either, since it is one of only two bioweapons research labs in all of China.
This suggests to me the Chinese coronavirus, now known as SARS-CoV-2, may have escaped from that very lab, and that Chen’s job is to try and put the genie back in the bottle.
Add to this China’s history of similar incidents. 
Even the deadly SARS virus has escaped — twice — from the Beijing lab where it was being used in experiments. 
Both were quickly contained, but neither would have happened at all if proper safety precautions had been taken.
And then there is this little-known fact: Some Chinese researchers are believed to sell laboratory animals to street vendors after they have finished experimenting on them.
You heard me right.
Instead of properly disposing of infected animals by cremation, as the law requires, they sell them on the side to make a little extra cash. 
Or, in some cases, a lot of extra cash.
One Beijing researcher, now in jail, made the equivalent of a million dollars selling monkeys and rats on the live animal market, whence they likely wound up in someone’s stomach.
Also fueling suspicions about Chinese coronavirus’s origins is the series of excuses offered by the Chinese authorities as people began to be sickened and die.
They first blamed a seafood market not far from the Institute of Virology, even though the first documented cases of Chinese coronavirus (the illness caused by SARS-CoV-2) involved people who had never set foot there. 
Then they pointed to snakes, bats and even a scaly anteater called a pangolin as the source of the virus.
I don’t buy any of this.
Snakes don’t carry coronaviruses, and bats aren’t sold at a seafood market. 
Neither are pangolins, for that matter, an endangered species valued for its scales as much as for meat.
The evidence, to me, points to Chinese coronavirus research being carried out at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The Chinese virus may have been carried out of the lab by an infected worker or crossed over into humans who unknowingly consumed a lab animal.
Whatever the vector, Beijing authorities are now clearly scrambling to correct serious problems with the way their labs handle deadly pathogens.
China may have unleashed a plague on its own people.
It’s too early to say how many in China and other countries will ultimately die, but the human cost will be high.
But not to worry.
Xi has assured us that he is controlling biosecurity risks “to protect the people’s health.”
PLA bioweapons experts are in charge.
I doubt the Chinese people will find that very reassuring.
Neither should we.