OBSERVER REPORT
WUHA N, HINA The director of a maximum security laboratory in China’s coronavirus ground-zero city of Wuhan has rejected claims that it could be the source of the outbreak, calling it “impossible”. Chinese scientists have said the virus likely jumped from an animal to humans in a market that sold wildlife. In an interview with state media published Saturday Yuan Zhiming, director of the laboratory, said hat “there’s no way this virus came from us”. None of his staff had been infected, he told the English-language state broadcaster CGTN, adding the “whole institute is carrying out research in different areas related to the coronavirus”. The institute had already dismissed the theory in February, saying it had shared information about the pathogen with the World Health Organisation in early January. When asked if the research suggested the virus could have come from the institute, Yuan said: “I know it’s impossible.” “As people who carry out viral studies we clearly know what kind of research is going on at the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples,” he said. He said that because the P4 laboratory is in Wuhan “people can’t help but make associations”, but that some media outlets are “deliberately trying to mislead people”. Yuan said the reports were “entirely based on speculation” without “evidence or knowledge”.
