World’s deadliest viruses shipped to Wuhan 'leak lab' by scientists who fled back to China after 'security breach'

SOME of the world's deadliest viruses were shipped to the Wuhan Institute of Virology by two scientists who fled back to China after a "security breach", it is reported.

Bombshell documents revealed how a shipment of dangerous Ebola and Henipah viruses were sent in 2019 from Canada's National Microbiology Lab to the Wuhan facility at the centre of the "lab leak" storm.


The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said it sent the samples on a commercial flight to China "for the purpose of scientific research" in March, 2019.

But soon after the shipment, Dr Xiangguo Qiu and her biologist husband Keding Cheng were marched out of the Winnipeg-based lab and stripped of their security clearance, CBC News reports.

The couple and their graduate students from China were escorted from the lab in July, 2019 and officially fired in January, 2020.

Several computers were seized, a lab log book was missing and Qiu's regular trips to Wuhan were suspended, sources told CBC News.

According to The Globe and Mail, PHAC said the firing of the scientists was an "administrative matter" and cited "possible breaches of security protocols".

But the shipment of the virus samples and the booting of the scientists has been shrouded in mystery for two years, alarming security experts and epidemiologists.

And the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are now investigating whether the viruses were shipped to China without a document protecting Canada's intellectual property rights, a source told The Globe and Mail.

The probe will look at whether key materials – which could have been used to recreate viruses or vaccines – were handed over to the Chinese authorities without the approval of the PHAC.


Leah West, a national security law expert at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, told CBC News: "If China was leveraging these scientists in Canada to gain access to a potentially valuable pathogen or to elements of a virus without having to license the patent… it makes sense with the idea of China trying to gain access to valuable IP without paying for it."

Detectives are also said to be examining how two Chinese military scientists managed to secure access to the lab in Canada – a Level-4 facility set up to handle some of the world's most dangerous viruses.

The Globe and Mail named one of the scientists as Feihu Yan, from the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

The theory that the pandemic emerged from a lab in Wuhan has been gaining momentum, stepping up from being dismissed as a "conspiracy" to a genuine concern.

Shocking biosecurity lapses spanning over 40 years have led some to question the official Chinese line that the disease was passed from animals to human.

British spies are looking into the theory – and consider it "feasible" – while US President Joe Biden has ordered the intelligence community will "redouble their efforts" to discover the origins of the outbreak.

Cops have been told that Dr Qiu, who arrived in Canada in 1996, and Cheng fled back to China after they were fired from the lab.

Dr Qiu had made at least five trips to China in 2017 and 2018, including one to train scientists and technicians at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to documents obtained by CBC News.

'SUSPICIOUS'

But the couple, who have two houses in Winnipeg valued at $1.7 million, haven't been seen since they attended a memorial service for a colleague in February, 2020, according to reports.

Amir Attaran, a law professor and epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa, said the case was "suspicious" and "potentially life-threatening".

"We have a researcher who was removed by the RCMP from the highest security laboratory that Canada has for reasons that government is unwilling to disclose," he told CBC News.

"But what we know is that before she was removed, she sent one of the deadliest viruses on Earth, and multiple varieties of it to maximise the genetic diversity and maximise what experimenters in China could do with it, to a laboratory in China that does dangerous gain of function experiments.

"And that has links to the Chinese military."


Gain of function experiments are when a virus is taken into a lab and mutated to see if it has become more deadly or infectious.

And two national security experts believe the case raises the possibility of Chinese espionage.

Christian Leuprecht, a security expert and professor at the Royal Military College and Queen's University, told CBC News: "It appears that what you might well call Chinese agents infiltrated one of the highest prized national security elements when it comes to biosecurity and biodefence."

'WAKE-UP CALL'

He added: "This needs to be a wake-up call for Canada about how aggressive the Chinese have become at infiltrating Western institutions for their political, economic and national security benefits.

"China has a very active, very aggressive and extremely dangerous bioweapons program.

"So all the research that's being generated here could easily be reappropriated by the Chinese authorities to advance rather nefarious causes."

Scott Newark, executive officer of the Canadian Police Association, said: "Why did our security procedures not identify that this was not a good idea, that these individuals, given their background, should not be given security clearances?"

The PHAC previously said the National Microbiology Lab routinely shares samples with other public health labs and the transfers follow strict protocols.

What do we know about the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

THE Wuhan Institute of Virology is the highest security lab of its kind in all of China – and can be found right at the heart of the origins of the pandemic.

Various theories have been reported about the lab, which is headed up by scientist Dr Shi Zhengli, known as “Bat Woman”.

The lab specialises in bat-borne viruses and had been carrying out experiences on them since 2015.

Airlocks, full body suits, and chemical showers are required before entering and leaving the facility – the first in China to be accredited with biosafety level 4 (BSL-4).

BSL-4 labs are the only areas in the world where scientists are permitted to study diseases that have no cure.

Scientists from the lab even tested a mysterious virus which killed three miners 1,000 miles away in Yunnan province back in 2012.

It has been suggested this fatal bug may have been the true origin of Covid-19.

Experts at the lab also engineered a new type of hybrid 'super-virus' that can infect humans in 2015, according to journal Nature Medicine

The study was designed to show the risk of viruses carried by bats which could be transmitted to humans.

There is no suggestion the facility's 2015 work is linked to the pandemic and the facility denies the lab leak claims.

The lab was also recruiting new scientists to probe coronaviruses in bats just seven days before the outbreak.

PHAC president Iain Stewart told a parliamentary committee in May: "While this is the only time that we have shared virus samples with this particular lab, collaboration with labs outside of Canada are critical to advance public health research into infectious diseases."

The public health body has not confirmed whether the scientists are Canadian citizens and previously insisted Qiu's firing and the shipment were not connected.

And the RCMP declined to discuss the nature of the ongoing investigation or confirm whether Dr Qiu and her husband are now in China.

"We are not in a position to respond at this time. The investigation is continuing," Corporal Julie Courchaine of the Manitoba RCMP division told to The Globe and Mail in a statement.

Dr Qiu, from Tianjin, China, arrived in Canada to study at the University of Manitoba in 1996, before working at the national lab as a research scientist in 2006.

She worked her way up to become head of the Vaccine Development and Antiviral Therapies section in the lab's special pathogens programme.

Dr Qiu was also part of the team which helped develop a treatment for the deadly Ebola virus – which is considered a "Category A" bioterrorism agent by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The other virus shipped to Wuhan, Henipah, is classified as "Category C" as it can be engineered for mass dissemination.

Security clearance is required to work at the National Microbiology Lab and scientists working with human pathogens and toxins must have clearance under the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act.

    Source: Read Full Article

    Previous post English ex-pats from across Europe travel hundreds of miles to Italy
    Next post VIDEO: Diver saves sperm whale trapped in ropes near Mauritius