COVID ORIGINSWhat If China Really Did Develop COVID as a Bioweapon? Here Are the Issues Involved
A recent report by the Sunday Times claims the newspaper has seen evidence that China was developing dangerous coronaviruses in collaboration with the Chinese military for the alleged purposes of biowarfare. This research program was the likely source of the pandemic, the report asserts.So, what could the rest of the world do about these new allegations – if anything? There is no easy answer, because, given the nature of biological research, we may never be able to reach a conclusive answer about the bioweapon question.
China is facing renewed allegations that the COVID-19 outbreak was caused by a leak from one of their laboratories – and that this research is connected to biowarfare.
It is a question asked pretty much since the pandemic was identified: was COVID-19 a natural outbreak or a disease that escaped from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan?
A recent report by the Sunday Times claims the newspaper has seen evidence that China was developing dangerous coronaviruses in collaboration with the Chinese military for the alleged purposes of biowarfare. This research program was the likely source of the pandemic, the report asserts.
The Allegations
The new allegations are based on “hundreds of documents” including confidential reports and memos, emails and scientific papers, as well as interviews with US State Department officials who have investigated the pandemic’s source. The report also claims that researchers from the Wuhan laboratory were taken to hospital with “COVID-like symptoms” in November 2019.
What caused COVID-19 has been investigated before, but these studies are not conclusive. The World Health Organization (WHO) carried out an inspection in January 2021.
While their investigators could not clearly find a natural source for the disease, they also stated that suggestions COVID-19 leaked from a laboratory were “highly unlikely”. Yet the WHO said that China’s lack of transparency made the investigation difficult and that this was a reason why they could not say either way.
China still insists there is no evidence that COVID-19 came from a laboratory.
The really interesting thing about the new report is not just that it says it has new evidence, but that it claims its data shows Chinese scientists were researching coronaviruses in relation to biowarfare. Biowarfare is the deliberate use of disease and biological agents to cause harm.
A US investigator is quoted in the article as asserting that Chinese scientists were working on a vaccine. The allegation is that the Chinese military wanted a vaccine to inoculate their own population if they ever wanted to use the virus for biowarfare. With a vaccine, says the report, China “might have a weapon to shift the balance of world power”.
Claims that China was developing biological weapons have been made by Dany Shoham, a former Israeli intelligence officer and biowarfare expert. Others staunchly reject this accusation. A US National Intelligence Council report said of COVID-19: “We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon.”
