Chao Shan, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology claimed in an interview that China manufactured coronavirus to be used as a “bioweapon”.
A journalist who is a member of the International Press Association, Jennifer Zeng, on June 28, 2023, posted an interview she had conducted of Chao Shan, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This interview was conducted in September 2021 but was posted only recently due to “pressure”, as mentioned by Jennifer in her twitter post.
On 28th June, 2023, Jennifer Zeng posted a video of herself narrating a summary of the interview that she had conducted on her twitter handle- @jenniferzeng97. She also posted links to the transcript of the interview on her twitter handle, which she has posted on her blog- jenniferzengblog.com.
Revelations by Chao Shan
In the interview Mr. Chao mentions that according to him, he and his coworkers were given the responsibility of determining the most efficient variant for transmission among different organisms, including humans.
Mr. Chao stated that his superior in Nanjing City provided him with four strains of coronavirus in 2019, instructing him to examine and determine which of the strains exhibited the highest degree of severity and transmissibility.
He stated that the said examination of the strains was conducted on transgenic mice with human ACE2 receptors, bats, ferrets, and monkeys. Coronavirus was a virus that bound to the ACE2 receptor cells in humans and caused host cell infections.
During the 26-minute interview, Mr. Chao further mentioned that a number of his coworkers went missing during the 2019 Military World Games held in Wuhan. Subsequently, one of them disclosed that they were dispatched to hotels accommodating athletes from different nations to “assess the health and hygiene conditions.”
As virologists were not required for assessing hygiene, Chao Shan harboured suspicions that their actual purpose was to facilitate the spread of the virus.
Furthermore, Chao Shao revealed that in April 2020, he was deployed to Xinjiang with the purpose of evaluating the well-being of Uyghur detainees in the re-education camps, supposedly to expedite their release.
However, due to the lack of relevance of virology expertise in conducting health assessments, Chao Shao strongly suggested that his assignment in Xinjiang had ulterior motives, potentially involving either aiding the dissemination of the virus or studying its impact on humans.
Investigation Ongoing
In response to Mr. Chao’s assertions, at the end of her video posted on twitter, Ms. Jennifer remarked that his claims represent only a fraction of the larger picture. Currently, the investigation into the true origins of the pandemic, which has resulted in nearly 7 million global deaths or potentially even more, is still ongoing.
US’ recently disclosed report
The recently disclosed intelligence report from the US government regarding the origins of Covid-19 did not provide definitive confirmation on whether the pandemic originated from a laboratory leak or if the virus transmitted to humans from an infected animal.
As per the report by the US Director of National Intelligence, it has been stated that the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is not categorized as a biological weapon. Several reports indicate that there is no substantiated evidence supporting the notion that COVID-19 was intentionally engineered as a biological weapon.
Instead, scientific evidence suggests that the COVID-19 virus is believed to have originated from zoonotic spillover, where it was transmitted from animals to humans. The genetic similarity between the virus found in horseshoe bats and the COVID-19 virus is reported to be approximately 96%.