Deputies told Wuhan lab leak ‘now the likely origin of Covid’

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Viscount Ridley, who co-authored a book on the origin of the virus with Dr. Chan, said he also believes the lab leak is now the likely origin.

Lord Ridley told MPs: “I also think it is more likely than not because we must face the fact that after two months we knew the origins of Sars, and two months later we knew that Mers was through camels, but two years later we have not yet found a single infected animal that could Be the predecessor, that’s incredibly surprising.

We need to know this so we can prevent the next pandemic. We need to know whether laboratories should be tightened or whether we should tighten regulations around wildlife markets. At the moment we don’t do that either.

“We also need to know to deter bad actors who watch this episode and think that unleashing the pandemic is something they can get away with.

“We now know that trials were being conducted at Biosecurity Level 2 (similar to a dentist’s office) resulting in a 10,000-fold increase in virus infection and three or four times their lethality. The important thing is to stop doing these risky trials.”

Peter Daszak’s interests declared that ‘too little time’

During the hearing, Lancet editor Richard Horton was also criticized for a letter published in the magazine in 2020 that dismissed the lab leak theory as a ‘conspiracy theory’ and effectively closed the controversy in the lab leak theory.

The letter was written by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, which has worked closely with engineering bat coronaviruses for the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

However, despite the close association, it took 16 months for The Lancet to publish a memo outlining Daszak’s conflicts of interest.

Aaron Bell said the memo announcing Mr. Daszak’s interests “came too late”.

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