'A lab leak isn't 100% certain but it seems to be the only logical source of Covid': Washington expert who led inquiry into the cause of the virus reveals three Wuhan lab scientists fell ill in November 2019
- David Asher said scientists are believed to have become ill in November, 2019
- He said it is 'hard to conclude' it was definitively Covid but it seems 'highly likely'
- According to 'credible' information from a well-connected foreign government, the wife of one researcher died later that month, Asher added
A cluster of researchers from
China's secretive Wuhan laboratories fell sick with 'Covid-like' symptoms at least six weeks before the Beijing government admitted an outbreak of a new virus in their city, according to the leading US investigator looking into the start of the pandemic.
David Asher, who led State Department inquiries into
Covid-19's origins, told The Mail on Sunday that three scientists are believed to have become ill with the mysterious respiratory condition in the second week of November, 2019.
'There are suspicions – for good reasons – of an initial cluster tied to Wuhan Institute of Virology in November and that people started to be hospitalised,' he said.
'Hard to conclude definitely it was Covid but it seems highly likely.'
According to 'credible' information from a well-connected foreign government, the wife of one researcher died later that month, Asher added.
This is a clear sign of human transmission – yet Beijing did not confirm this crucial fact to the World Health Organisation until mid-January last year, by which time the coronavirus had spread across China and then started seeping around the planet.
'By December, if not sooner, the Chinese had to know that they had a problem on their hands with a mysterious coronavirus spreading in Wuhan,' said Asher, adding that there could also have been unidentified earlier clusters.
US State Department expert David Asher says lab leak is only logical explanation of Covid source | Daily Mail Online