scientists had failed to find the animal host that caused the pandemic, despite theories promoted by Beijing that the outbreak may have been linked to imports of frozen seafood tainted with the virus.
Speaking to House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on Wednesday, Dr Chan, a specialist in gene therapy and cell engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, noted that the pandemic, which has already claims the lives of millions of people across the globe, was more likely the result of a man-made virus, as she warned that the accurate information regarding the origins of COVID-19 would emerge eventually.
“I think the lab origin is more likely than not. Right now it’s not safe for people who know about the origin of the pandemic to come forward. But we live in an era where there is so much information being stored that it will eventually come out,” she noted. “We have heard from many top virologists that a genetically engineered origin is reasonable and that includes virologists who made modifications to the first Sars virus.”
The molecular biologist went on to point out to a recent discovery which suggested that Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was linked to many of the first COVID cases, had worked together with New York-based EcoHealth Alliance on novel furin cleavage sites, a part of the spike protein which makes Coronavirus so infectious.
“We know this virus has a unique feature, called the furin cleavage site, and without this feature there is no way this would be causing this pandemic,” Dr Chan said. “So, you find these scientists who said in early 2018 ‘I’m going to put horns on horses’ and at the end of 2019 a unicorn turns up in Wuhan city.”
Dr Chan’s views on the origins of the pandemic were also shared by Matt Ridley, a member of the House of Lords who co-authored a book with her regarding the matter. “I also think it’s more likely than not because we have to face the fact after two months we knew the origins of Sars, and after a couple of months we knew Mers was through camels, but after two years we still haven’t found a single infected animal that could be the progenitor,” he said.
“We need to know whether we should be tightening up work in laboratories or whether we should be tightening up regulations related to wildlife markets. At the moment we are really not doing either.”
