First People Sickened By COVID-19 Were Chinese Scientists At Wuhan Institute Of Virology, Say US Government Sources

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The three scientists were engaged in โ€œgain-of-functionโ€ research on SARS-like coronaviruses when they fell ill

After years of official pronouncements to the contrary, significant new evidence has emerged that strengthens the case that the SARS-CoV-2 virus accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

According to multiple U.S. government officials interviewed as part of a lengthy investigation by Public and Racket, the first people infected by the virus, โ€œpatients zero,โ€ included Ben Hu, a researcher who led the WIVโ€™s โ€œgain-of-functionโ€ research on SARS-like coronaviruses, which increases the infectiousness of viruses.

More than three years after the pandemicโ€™s outbreak, many around the world had given up on learning the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the highly infectious respiratory virus that hasย killed millions, and the response to which shut down businesses and schools, upended societies, and caused enormous collateral damage.

Public officials in the U.S. and other countries have repeatedly suggested that uncovering the pandemicโ€™s origin may not be possible. โ€œWe may never know,โ€ย said Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who oversaw pandemic response for two administrations.

Now, answers increasingly look within reach. Sources within the US government say that three of the earliest people to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 were Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu. All were members of the Wuhan lab suspected to have leaked the pandemic virus.

As such, not only do we know there were WIV scientists who had developed COVID-19-like illnesses in November 2019, but also that they were working with the closest relatives of SARS-CoV-2, and inserting gain-of-function features unique to it.

When a source was asked how certain they were that these were the identities of the three WIV scientists who developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19 in the fall of 2019, we were told, โ€œ100%โ€

โ€œBen Hu is essentially the next Shi Zhengli,โ€ said Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and coauthor with Matt Ridley ofย Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid19. Shi is known as โ€œthe bat woman of China,โ€ and led the gain-of-function research at the WIV. โ€œHe was her star pupil. He had been making chimeric SARS-like viruses and testing these in humanized mice. If I had to guess who would be doing this risky virus research and most at risk of getting accidentally infected, it would be him.โ€

By MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER,ย MATT TAIBBI,ย andย ALEX GUTENTAG

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