WUHAN lab scientists attempted to get the coronavirus renamed so the deadly bug could be distanced from China, bombshell emails reveal.
Correspondence obtained through freedom of information requests show further evidence of how the Communist Party attempted to control the narrative during the early days of the pandemic.
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Emails uncovered by US Right to Know (USRTK) – a public health research non-profit organisation – expose how Wuhan lab chief Dr Shi Zhengli helped spearhead an effort to alter the virus’s scientific name “SARS-CoV-2“.
The messages obtained by USRTK show that the scientists argued the name of the virus was a “matter of importance to the Chinese people” as it became a political football.
Dr Shi – known as “Bat Woman” – and the other Chinese researchers argued the name was “truly misleading” as they felt it linked the virus to 2003 outbreak of SARS in China.
Chinese scientists also raised fears that the virus might become known as the “Wuhan coronavirus” or “Wuhan pneumonia” as they battled to save face.
Covid is believed originated in the Chinese city in December 2019 – with its true origins still shrouded in mystery despite a probe by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Gary Ruskin, executive director of USRTK, told The Sun Online: “What is interesting about these emails is the involvement of Chinese scientists – including Shi Zhengli – in the political effort to change the name of SARS-CoV-2.
“It shows their conscription into political processes.
“They are engaging in an inherently political process of naming or renaming the novel coronavirus. The power to name is the power to define.”
Emails from Dr Shi on February 13, 2019, reveal her lobbying efforts with the Coronavirus Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy, who were responsible for christening the virus.
She writes: “I am wondering if the CoV study group would consider a revision.”
The emails were obtained by USRTK through a public records request to the University of North Carolina, which is subject to freedom of information laws in the US.
She presents a four point proposal which is signed off by other eminent Chinese scientists – including the principal investigator at China’s CDC, Wenjie Tan.
It suggests changing the scientific name to “TARS-CoV” or “HARS-CoV” to indicate a “clear difference” from the SARS outbreak which is so infamously tied to China.
The scientists argue the virus should have a name that does not “stigmatize and insult the people in Wuhan”
The letter reads: “It goes without saying that the effects of the epidemic on all aspects of Chinese life are devastating, and possible irreversible.
“Consequently, appropriately naming the virus and disease becomes a matter of importance to the Chinese people.”
Further emails from Deyin Guo, the former dean of Wuhan University’s School of Biomedical Sciences, accused CSG of not consulting “the first discovers of the virus”.
He raised his concerns after “discussing with many members” of the Chinese scientific community – and claimed the name was “very confusing”.
China’s efforts were not successful, and the scientific name stuck.
John Ziebuhr, chairman of the CSG, dismissed their concerns in a reply and defended its links to SARS.
He wrote: “The suffix -2 is used as a unique identifier and indicates that SARS-Co V-2 is yet ANOTHER (but closely related) virus in this species.”
Some biolabs present a risk perhaps for every person on the planet
Gary Ruskin
Mr Ruskin told The Sun Online that USRTK’s decision to probe Covid was driven by concerns there will not be a “full honest picture” about the origins of the virus.
He said: “We thought maybe we would fail to find anything interesting at all, but that the question was so important that we had to try.”
The investigator also added that they were motivated by concerns of the possibility of a lab leak – with the Wuhan Institute of Virology being probed as a possible origin of Covid.
“Some biolabs present a risk perhaps for every person on the planet,” Mr Ruskin said.
“They keep dangerous pathogens and conduct their research without obtaining or even asking for our consent, and in the absence of a functioning regulatory system.”
USRTK is having to use litigation to get some institutes to release important documents as part of their probe, with Mr Ruskin warning “agencies keep secrets”.
THE WUHAN Institute of Virology is the highest security lab of its kind in all of China - and can be found right at the heart of the origins of the global pandemic.
Various theories have been swirling about the lab, which is headed up by Chinese scientist Dr Shi Zhengli, known as “Bat Woman”.
Most scientists do not believe the virus leaked from the lab, and the lab itself has categorically denied the claims.
The lab specialised in bat-borne viruses and had been carrying out experiences on them since 2015.
Airlocks, full body suits, and chemical showers are required before entering and leaving the lab – the first in China to be accredited with biosafety level 4 (BSL-4).
BSL-4 labs are the only places in the world where scientists can study diseases that have no cure.
Scientists from the lab even tested mysterious
virus which killed three miners 1,000 miles away in Yunnan province back in 2012.
It has been suggested this fatal mystery bug may have been the true origin of Covid-19.
Experts at the lab also engineered a new type of hybrid ‘super-virus’ that can infect humans in 2015, according to medical journal Nature Medicine
Despite fears surrounding the research, the study was designed to show the risk of viruses carried by bats which could be transmitted to humans.
There is no suggestion the facility’s 2015 work is linked to the pandemic.
The lab was also recruiting new scientists to probe coronaviruses in bats just seven days before the outbreak.
China has began tightening security around its biolabs with President Xi Jinping saying it was a “national security” issue to improve scientific safety at a meeting last February.
WIV has been suggested since the outbreak of the pandemic to be key part of the Covid origin story as it specializes in bat coronaviruses and was holding the virus which is closest known to Covid-19.
China and the lab have always furiously denied any allegations of a possible leak, and WHO appeared to agree with them as they wrapped up their probe in Wuhan.
However, the White House has said it has “deep concerns” over the investigation which was carried out in a tightly managed fashion alongside China.
Scientists who were on the team have already broken cover and revealed China did not hand over all the data they requested, and there was always “politics in the room”.
Documents already revealed Beijing downplayed the bug to “protect its image”, and there have been repeated allegations that China has manipulated its death and case figures.
And earlier this year, new docs released by the US revealed scientists in Wuhan fell ill with Covid-like symptoms in late 2019 – months before the pandemic began to ravage the world.
China has been accused of been attempting to control the narrative throughout the pandemic and has constantly tried to deflect any blame of the virus’s origins.
The Sun Online previously revealed 16 missing databases from the Wuhan lab could be the Covid smoking gun as the probe continues.
