Wuhan lab at the center of Covid cover-up claims detects brand new virus

A brand new virus has been detected in the Chinese laboratory in the center of the origin of Covid.

Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology discovered the pathogen, codenamed LsPyV KY187, in a mouse.

It belongs to a family of polyomaviruses that infect millions of children each year, but are extremely mild.

Scientists from the controversial lab made the discovery after testing hundreds of rodents in Kenya in 2016 and 2019.

The samples were then sent to the biochemical research facility in Wuhan, the epicenter of the Covid pandemic, for analysis.

The new polyomavirus was detected in a striped grass mouse, also known as the zebra mouse.

This was revealed by a study published this month in the Chinese journal Virologica Sinica.

The researchers said that because the new virus is not closely related to any known pathogen, its impact on humans is “uncertain and needs further evaluation.”

Whether the global outbreak began with an overflow of commercially available wildlife or whether it leaked from the Wuhan laboratory just eight miles down the Yangtze River has sparked heated debate over how to prevent the next pandemic. Now, two new studies point to a natural overflow in the Huanan Wildlife Market. Positive contamination from floors, cages and stalls also traces the virus to stalls in the southwest corner of the market (bottom left), currently selling animals that could potentially harbor Covid for meat or fur (bottom right)

The discovery highlights how things are going in the Wuhan lab, despite constant questions about its links to the pandemic.

Covid began to spread in a slaughter market about 13 kilometers from WIV, which was working with dangerous coronaviruses.

Chinese authorities suppressed independent research at the lab and cleared databases of important information on early Covid patients.

WIV researchers who contracted a mysterious flu-like virus months before the official Covid timeline were either silenced or disappeared.

Pictured: The Wuhan Institute of Virology, where important data was deleted by Chinese scientists

Virologist Shi Zheng-li works with his colleague in the P4 lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Hubei Province, which is at the heart of the lab leak theory. Nicknamed the “Bat Lady,” Zheng-li has hunted dozens of deadly Covid-like viruses in bat caves and studied them at the WIV.

The so-called lab theft hypothesis was dismissed as conspiracy or xenophobia in early 2020. But as time passed, the theory took hold.

WIV experts have studied bats and other animal coronaviruses extensively and are known to have experimented with Covid’s closest relatives.

He also conducted controversial regain-of-function experiments by tampering with viruses to make them more contagious or deadly.

But there has been no direct evidence that Covid first jumped on people at the facility.

And new research seems to support the idea that the Huanan fish market is the real source of the pandemic.

The most recent study, presented to the scientific journal last November, involved sampling from 232 animals in Kenya’s five provinces.

They met twice: in August and September 2016 and in March 2019.

The researchers studied 226 mice and rats, five shrews and one hedgehog, all known carriers of zoonotic infectious diseases, diseases that affect humans.

Samples were returned to WIV for PCR analysis.

The liver, lung and kidney tissue of each animal were screened for the presence of DNA viruses from seven families.

A total of 25 animals tested positive. In all but one case, samples were traced to pre-existing viruses.

However, further analysis showed that the new polyomavirus was only 60% similar to its closest relative.

In the paper, the researchers wrote that the new virus is “not closely related to any virus known to cause disease in small mammal hosts or humans.”

They added: ‘Pathogenicity [ability to cause disease in humans] and the potential risk of zoonotic transmission is unclear and needs further evaluation”.

About 80% of adults have had a polyomavirus infection at some point in their lives, usually in childhood.

The virus lives in the upper respiratory tract and people usually do not have any symptoms.

It is never completely excreted from the body and remains dormant for life, but many never notice it.

In very rare cases, the virus can reactivate and multiply in immunocompromised patients, causing damage to the kidneys and even the brain.

Meanwhile, Wuhan researchers are emphasizing the importance of continuing to conduct virus research on animals.

“As agricultural activities are increasingly taking place in natural rodent habitats in Africa, this highlights the need for continued surveillance over a wide area, which could mean larger sample sizes and higher detection methods.

Pathogenicity studies of new viral pathogens are also needed in future research.

“Such programs will provide an important foundation for future prevention and control of emerging zoonotic diseases.”