What is the Wuhan laboratory like: agent zero of the pandemic?
In recent days, Joe Biden's administration has once again promoted a theory that had been initiated by his predecessor in office, Donald Trump, but that had been classified as “highly unlikely” by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Last week, the president of the United States gave intelligence agencies 90 days to find out whether COVID-19 first emerged in China from an animal source or by accident in a laboratory.
These accusations have not gone unnoticed by the Asian giant, which has rejected the theory that the virus could have emerged from a virology center in Wuhan. In fact, the local government accuses the United States of selling conspiracies and politicizing the pandemic.
The enigmatic laboratory
The controversial laboratory is located in Wuhan, a Chinese city where the origin of the coronavirus has been detected. It is a center dedicated to biotechnology that has caused a stir worldwide in recent months.
Although the official version of the Chinese Government states that the virus could have passed from animals to humans in a market that sold live species in Wuhan, the existence of this laboratory always aroused suspicions, particularly because the facility houses the Cultivation Center of Viruses, the most important virus bank in Asia where more than 1,500 varieties are stored.
How is it?
The laboratory was completed in 2015 and cost an investment of 300 million yuan ($42 million).
This facility is home to Asia's first high-security laboratory capable of handling class 4 (P4) pathogens, which are dangerous viruses that are transmitted from person to person, such as Ebola.
The P4 laboratory, 3,000 m2, is inside a square building with a cylindrical annex, near a pond, at the foot of a hill on the outskirts of Wuhan. According to an AFP report from April, no type of activity was detected in the center.
An article of The Washington Post claims that the virus may have accidentally left this complex. It was also possible to verify through diplomatic documents that there was concern on the part of the authorities about the “inadequate security of researchers” when handling viruses similar to SARS.
It is worth mentioning that the theory of the origin of the virus in a bat has been suggested, among other experts, by Shi Zhengli, vice director of the P4 laboratory.
As a result of this series of speculations, the United States, through its president Joe Biden, has once again commissioned an in-depth investigation to determine whether or not the virus causing the current pandemic emerged from this enigmatic Wuhan laboratory.
