Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate on Covid-19 Origin

Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report (based on information 'provided by an international partner' that was 'potentially significant but still in need of further investigation and additional corroboration') that could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory. WSJ: The details of the reporting go beyond a State Department fact sheet, issued during the final days of the Trump administration, which said that several researchers at the lab, a center for the study of coronaviruses and other pathogens, became sick in autumn 2019 'with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness.'

The disclosure of the number of researchers, the timing of their illnesses and their hospital visits come on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into Covid-19's origins. Current and former officials familiar with the intelligence about the lab researchers expressed differing views about the strength of the supporting evidence for the assessment.

UPDATE (5/24): The Journal took special note of the timing of the information's release, 'on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into COVID-19's origins.'

In addition, China explicitly 'said Monday the Journal article is false,' UPI reported today. But the news service also notes that the director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Lab had been reached for a comment by the Global Times. His response? He said he had never heard anything about lab workers being sick, and called the claims 'groundless.'

One member of the WHO team investigating the origins of the outbreak specifically told CNN in February that the lab's researchers had already been tested, with no evidence found of Covid antibodies.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.