The Wuhan Institute of Virology did keep live bats on site despite one of the WHO’s chief investigators dismissing it as a conspiracy theory, it has been claimed.
New footage aired by Sky News Australia purports to show live bats in cages at the lab, which is at the center of speculation that Covid was ‘leaked’ into the world.
If they are genuine, then it would contradict tweets penned by WHO investigator Peter Daszak last year who insisted that ‘no bats were sent to Wuhan lab’ while dismissing the idea as ‘a widely circulated conspiracy theory’.
Daszak was part of the WHO team sent into China to investigate the origins of Covid, and whose report dismissed the ‘lab leak’ theory and called for no further research.
US intelligence agencies have since said there is sufficient reason to believe otherwise, prompting Joe Biden to order further investigation into the theory.
The footage aired by Sky was taken from a Chinese state promotional video released in 2017 to coincide with the opening of the Wuhan Institute for Virology.
It was handed to the TV station by a group called ‘Drastic’, who claim to be a team of scientists and investigators probing the origins of Covid – though most of the group operate under pseudonyms.
Sky News did not air the whole video, but instead included short snippets of the footage in a report that aired on Sunday questioning the origins of the pandemic.
A short five-second segment shows bats inside a cage, followed by more footage which shows rows of similar-looking cages and a scientist feeding a bat a maggot.
Sharri Markson, the investigative reporter who put the piece together, tells the camera: ‘This video shows bats in a cage at the Wuhan lab.’
However, it is not clear from the footage itself exactly where it was filmed.
There are several research laboratories in Wuhan, at least one of which – the Center for Disease Control – is known to have kept live animals including bats.
But if confirmed as genuine, the footage would contradict two tweets that Daszak penned in December last year in a challenge to his credibility.
‘No BATS were sent to Wuhan lab for genetic analysis of viruses collected in the field,’ he wrote in the first message.
‘That’s now how this science works. We collect bat samples, send them to the lab. We RELEASE bats where we catch them!’
He later added: ‘This is a widely circulated conspiracy theory. This piece describes work I’m the lead on and labs I’ve collaborated with for 15 years.
‘They DO NOT have live or dead bats in them. There is no evidence anywhere that this happened. It’s an error I hope will be corrected.’
He has since deleted the tweets and this month appeared to revise his position somewhat, saying instead that he ‘wouldn’t be surprised if, like many other virology labs, they were trying to set up a bat colony.’
He also admitted: ‘We didn’t ask them if they had bats.’
Daszak’s presence on a number of bodies investigating the origins of Covid has proved controversial because he has links to the Wuhan Institute and its chief researcher Dr Shi Zhengli – dubbed ‘Batwoman’.
A conservation charity of which Daszak is the director has funneled money into the lab and research being done by Dr Zhengli.
The Ukrainian-born British zoologist was also an early voice denouncing ‘lab leak’ theories as ‘conspiracies’ in an open letter published in The Lancet last February – a reaction that has been likened to a cover-up.
Connect with us on our socials: