Virologist Dr Shi Zheng-li, left, works with her colleague in the P4 lab of Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. Photo / Getty ImagesThe chief scientist for emerging disease at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, "Bat Lady" Dr Shi Zhengli has rejected fresh claims Covid-19 may have escaped from her lab as "sad" and "not acceptable". A group of 18 scientists including one of the world's foremost coronavirus researchers has reignited the debate over whether Covid-19 escaped from a Wuhan lab. "Accidents do happen," he said but he maintained the viruses kept in the Wuhan laboratory were genetically different from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The NIH has not ever, and does not now, fund 'gain of function research' in the Wuhan Institute,'' Dr Fauci said.

Source: New Zealand Herald May 14, 2021 02:50 UTC