IAN BIRRELL: UN experts say lab leak was the ‘most likely’ cause of Covid-19

The authors of two United Nations reports on the origins of the pandemic say they believe a laboratory leak was the most likely cause of Covid-19 and accuse leading British and American scientists of helping China deliberately suppress debate. about the topic.

The distinguished professors attacked the ‘cover-up’ in a damning joint article for The Mail on Sunday calling for a ‘reassessment of the likely pathways that caused this pandemic’.

They say that the high-risk experiments being carried out in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the covid first appeared, are shrouded in a cloak of suspicious secrets, deception and conflicts of interest, and argue that it was “applied not only by China but also by Western funding agencies. and influential Western scientists’. The dramatic intervention comes from epidemiologists Colin Butler (based at the National Center for Epidemiology and Population Health in Canberra, Australia) and Delia Randolph (of the University of Greenwich, London).

“I realize that speaking out may be unpopular, even reduce my job opportunities, but the scale of this pandemic is far more important than any personal consideration,” Professor Butler said yesterday.

npopular, even reducing my job opportunities, but the scale of this pandemic is far more important than any personal consideration,” Professor Butler said yesterday.

He added that it was vital to restore confidence in science, and that his research for the report led him to conclude that “gain-of-function experiments,” which can increase the infectivity of deadly viruses, “could rival nuclear weapons in its potential for damage. ‘.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) commissioned the two public health experts, shortly after the virus emerged in China, to study the causes and consequences of COVID-19 amid suggestions at the time. that its origins were in a wild animal market in Wuhan.

Professor Randolph, lead author of the first report, admits she was concerned about the possibility of a laboratory “pathway”, but felt the agency was “reluctant to include something so controversial” in the study she led.

Professor Butler was initially skeptical of a lab leak, but struggled to include mention of the theory in his report as evidence began to emerge about hidden data, controversial “gain-of-function” experiments, and the research environment. risky in Wuhan.

He believes the publication was deliberately stalled for ten months until its final launch last fall with minimal publicity only after his personal appeal to the report’s funder.

The two professors’ reports are substantial, emphasizing that, ‘unlike some key players in the Covid origin debate’, they have no financial or scientific ties to Wuhan or ‘gain-of-function’ research. We accept that ‘natural origin’ is possible with ‘zoonotic’ transmission from nature to humans; however, strangely, no sign of evidence remains to support this theory,’ they write.

Last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest public funding body for science, came under fire from an official watchdog for not being aware of US-sponsored virus experiments in Wuhan. .

Last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest public funding body for science, came under fire from an official watchdog for being unaware of US-sponsored virus experiments.

The MoS revealed last year that Sir Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust, a leading research charity, had criticized biosafety in Wuhan labs as the ‘Wild West’ in emails to the NIH director discussing the possible origins. of the coronavirus.

Professors Butler and Randolph single out Sir Jeremy, who has since been appointed chief scientist at the World Health Organization, as one of the key figures in suppressing this debate.

UNEP declined to comment on these issues yesterday.