The former director of China’s Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) has said the lab leak theory for the origins of Covid-19 should not be discounted. George Gao, an internationally respected virologist, also said another branch of the Chinese government had investigated the lab leak theory – the first such acknowledgment that some kind of official investigation took place. “They haven’t found wrongdoing,” he said. Gao served as the CDC head until July 2022, putting him at the forefront of China’s investigations into the origins of Covid. The virus…
Tag: Coronavirus
Surge in strikes at Chinese factories after Covid rules end
Protests in China are often small- scale. On 17 May, a handful of workers at an air-purifier factory in Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian province, south-east China, gathered to demand the payment of wages that, they said, were in arrears. The protest was quiet, but it was one of nearly 30 similar demonstrations this month alone. With China’s factories reopened and draconian coronavirus measures abandoned, workers are also going on strike at a remarkable rate. This year in China there have already been at least 130 factory strikes, more…
China’s Covid whistleblower in Wuhan reportedly freed after three years
A Chinese citizen journalist who disappeared three years ago while reporting on the Wuhan coronavirus lockdown – and was later revealed to have been detained by authorities – has reportedly been released. Fang Bin was let out of detention on Sunday, according to multiple media reports that cited people close to the family. The reports said he had gone to Beijing, where some of his family live, before being sent back to Wuhan on Monday morning, where he remains under strict supervision. A Chinese human rights monitoring group said neither…
China’s ‘zero Covid’ policy was a mass imprisonment campaign | Murong Xuecun
In one week last December, five members of Guan Yao’s family in Beijing died, including his father, his father-in-law and his grandmother. In an interview with a journalist, Guan, who lives in California, appeared powerless and dejected. Yet – for reasons that anyone from China understands – he chose his words carefully. Avoiding directly mentioning the Chinese government, he referred only to an ambiguous “them”. “It is difficult to understand,” Guan said, “why they abruptly lifted all restrictions.” If you choose to believe official Chinese government documents, the deaths of…
Newly released Chinese Covid data points to infected animals in Wuhan
Newly released data from early in the Covid-19 pandemic has offered a crucial insight into the outbreak’s origins, suggesting that Covid-infected animals were present at a market in Wuhan and could have been a “potential source of human infections”. A pre-print report on Monday by a team of international researchers fleshed out analysis of previously unseen genomic samples collected by Chinese scientists at the Huanan market in Wuhan in the early days of the pandemic. Initially leaked last week after a meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) committee studying…
Biden orders release of intelligence on potential links between Covid and Wuhan lab
A bill requiring the release of intelligence materials on potential links between the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan has been signed into law by US president Joe Biden. “We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins … including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Biden said in a statement. “In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible. “I share the Congress’s goal of releasing as much information as…
Australia news live: total fire bans in parts of Victoria, NSW and SA amid autumn heat blast
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New data links Covid-19’s origins to raccoon dogs at Wuhan market
Newly released genetic data gathered from a live food market in Wuhan has linked Covid-19 with raccoon dogs, adding weight to the theory that infected animals sold at the site started the coronavirus pandemic, researchers involved in the work say. Swabs collected from stalls at the Huanan seafood market in the two months after it was shut down on 1 January 2020 were previously found to contain both Covid and human DNA. When the findings were published last year, Chinese researchers stated that the samples contained no animal DNA. That…
Doctor who exposed China’s cover-up of Sars crisis dies aged 91
A military surgeon who exposed the Chinese government’s cover-up of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic 20 years ago and lived for years under intermittent house arrest has died in Beijing. He was 91. Dr Jiang Yanyong died of pneumonia and other illnesses on Saturday, according to two of his friends. A person who answered the phone at his home confirmed his death but declined to talk further. Jiang had been in ill health in the past few years. Jiang, who had been the chief surgeon at the Chinese…
China to reopen to foreign tourists for first time since Covid crisis
China will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years since the Covid pandemic erupted by allowing all categories of visas to be issued. The removal of this last cross-border control measure on Wednesday comes after authorities declared victory over the virus last month. Tourist industry insiders do not expect a large influx of visitors in the near future or significant boost to the economy. In 2019, international tourism receipts accounted for just 0.9% of China’s gross domestic product. But the resumption of visa…