The wife of a Wuhan lab researcher working on deadly viruses apparently died of Covid in December 2019, according to a bombshell US report. The leader of a State Department investigation under the Trump administration made the shock claim amid renewed interest in the lab-leak origin theory of Covid. David Asher, who led an investigation on COVID-19’s origins, told the Daily Caller an employee at the Wuhan Institute of Virology provided US intelligence with the information on the lab researcher’s wife dying from a mysterious virus.
This follows up from a report in the Wall Street Journal last weekend which revealed three Wuhan lab workers were hospitalized with COVID-like symptoms in November 2019.
This was weeks before the first confirmed case of COVID-19 on 8th December.
Mr Asher told Fox News this week: "How many normal people in their 30s to 40s get so sick from influenza that they have to be hospitalized? Lab workers, I am told, are almost certainly getting flu shots.
"Moreover, what are the odds that several workers — who happen to be the researchers on enhancing the pathogenicity of COV RaTG13 and associated COVS all fall very sick together?"
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This comes amid a renewed focus on the lab-leak theory, after the Biden administration called for the US intelligence community to redouble its efforts to discover information on the origins of COVID-19 and report back to him in 90 days.
This call included the possibility the virus emerged from a laboratory accident rather than from human contact with an infected animal.
China has hit back against President Biden's order, pointing to the findings of a March report by a World Health Organization mission.
On Thursday the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said it was “extremely unlikely” the virus had come from a laboratory in Wuhan.
The broad consensus among scientific experts remains that the most likely explanation is that Covid jumped to humans from an animal host in a natural event.
However, Mr Asher suggested it was "ridiculous" to say coronavirus came from animals.
He claims the Trump administration's investigation found almost "no evidence" supporting a natural origin.
He told Fox News: "We were finding that despite the claims of our scientific community, including the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Fauci's NIAID organization, there was almost no evidence that supported a natural, zoonotic evolution or source of COVID-19.
"To say this came out of a zoonotic situation, it's ridiculous."
