COVID man-made, leaked: US-based scientist who worked at Wuhan lab
What's the story
In yet another sensational revelation, British tabloid The Sun quoted a US-based scientist saying that COVID-19 is a man-made virus and it was leaked from a government-run facility in China's Wuhan, where he worked. The scientist, Dr. Andrew Huff has come out with a new book titled The Truth About Wuhan, branding the pandemic as "the greatest cover-ups in history".
Context
Why does this story matter?
Providing ammunition to the Western attack on China, United States President's chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said in May 2021 that COVID-19 could have originated from Chinese virology labs in Wuhan. A study in the medical journal Science in November 2021 stated the first confirmed case of symptomatic COVID-19 could be traced to a female seafood vendor at an animal market in Wuhan.
Claim
Tried to warn authorities: Huff
Huff says he worked at the Chinese government-run Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) where he tried to warn the authorities about inadequate control measures. Huff is an epidemiologist and the former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance—a New York-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that has been studying different coronaviruses in bats for over a decade and is funded by the US National Institutes of Health.
Details
Huff worked at Wuhan lab between 2014 and 2016
The WIV has been at the center of the storm over speculations of COVID-19 being genetically engineered, which China has categorically denied. He claimed that the gain-of-function experiments lacked biosecurity and risk management. Although Huff worked at the lab from 2014 to 2016, as EcoHealth Alliance had close ties with WIV, he claims the virus leaked around two years ago.
Reportage
The Sun's report falsely claims WHO chief also believes same
The initial report by The Sun was picked up by the New York Post, a US conservative daily tabloid. Further, The Sun's report falsely claimed that World Health Organization (WHO) chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also "believes Covid did leak from the lab after a catastrophic accident," linking an uncorroborated click-bait report saying that he "privately confided" in a European politician about the same.
Research
Researcher suggests pandemic began from Wuhan market
Dr. Michael Worobey, who conducted the study, argued the vendor's links to the Huanan market suggest the pandemic began there." In this city of 11 million people, half of the early cases are linked to a place that's the size of a soccer field," he said. "It becomes very difficult to explain that pattern if the outbreak didn't start at the market."