Anthony Fauci urges China to share medical records of researchers who fell ill in Wuhan

White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci urged China to share the medical records of nine people who suffered from a coronavirus-like illness before the pandemic began, saying they could help determine whether the virus could have arisen from a laboratory..

The laboratory leak theory has gained steam in recent weeks after reports that six miners had fallen ill in 2012 and three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been hospitalized in November 2019 with symptoms consistent with covid-19 – although also with those of a “seasonal infection” -, after visiting a cave with bats in the Chinese province of Yunnan.

In an interview published Thursday in the Financial Times, Fauci said these medical records could answer crucial questions about the origins of Covid-19 in Wuhan, where the pandemic that has killed more than 3.6 million people worldwide began..

“I would like to see the medical records of the three people who reportedly got sick in 2019,” the immunologist said.. “Did they really get sick, and if so, what did they get sick from?”.

Fauci affirmed that it is “entirely conceivable that the origin of the covid-19 is in that cave” that the team of experts visited, and that “it has started to spread naturally or has passed through the laboratory”.

In May, he had stated that while many specialists thought it was “more likely” that the virus is “a natural event”, they were not “100% certain”.

China, which is fiercely trying to dismiss the laboratory hypothesis, accused Washington of spreading “conspiracy theories” and denied reports published by US media about the hospitalization of researchers in Wuhan..

The thesis of natural origin, considered the most probable by a joint study by experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese who visited Wuhan earlier this year, maintains that the virus appeared in bats before being transmitted to humans. , probably via another animal.

Beijing says the virus left the US

On Friday, China's foreign ministry relied on that team's findings to reject Fauci's statements, citing unsubstantiated claims that the virus first appeared in the US military laboratory at Fort Detrick..

Consulted on the possibility of Beijing sharing medical records, ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin referred to a statement from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in March.

“We hope that people who don’t believe in conspiracy theories, who respect facts and truth can find factual answers in this statement,” Wang said.

Last week, President Joe Biden asked U.S. intelligence services to produce a report within 90 days on the origin of covid-19.