Top U.S. infectious illness specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci has named on China to release the healthcare records of nine persons whose ailments could provide very important clues into no matter whether COVID-19 1st emerged as the outcome of a lab leak, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
“I would like to see the medical records of the three people who are reported to have got sick in 2019. Did they really get sick, and if so, what did they get sick with?” the report quoted Fauci as saying.
The origin of the virus is hotly contested, with U.S. intelligence agencies nevertheless examining reports that researchers at a Chinese virology laboratory in Wuhan have been seriously ill in 2019 a month ahead of the 1st COVID-19 situations have been reported.
However, Chinese scientists and officials have regularly rejected the lab leak hypothesis, saying the virus could have been circulating in other regions ahead of it hit Wuhan and could have even entered China via imported frozen meals shipments or wildlife trading.
Financial Times reported that Fauci continues to think the virus was 1st transmitted to humans via animals, pointing out that even if the lab researchers did have COVID-19, they could have contracted the illness from the wider population.
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