New viruses being discovered are only the “tip of the iceberg”, according to a leading Wuhan-based virologist at the centre of Covid-19-related conspiracy theories because of her research on coronaviruses found in bats.
“The unknown viruses that we have discovered are actually just the tip of the iceberg,” Shi Zhengli, deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said in an interview to Chinese state television on Monday. She added it was important to carry out advanced research on pathogens.
Shi is known as China’s “bat woman”, as she has worked on coronaviruses found in the flying mammals for years, most notably inside abandoned mines in the southwestern province of Yunnan.
She has kept a low profile since the Covid-19 outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, only occasionally commenting on social media, including once to deny that she had defected from China after the pandemic rapidly spread.
According to the Communist Party of China’s mouthpiece, the People’s Daily’s English website, Shi had reacted on February 2to a research article by Indian scientists implying the novel coronavirus possibly originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“The 2019 novel coronavirus is a punishment by nature to humans’ unsanitary life styles. I promise with my life that the virus has nothing to do with the lab,” she said on social media app WeChat.
{{/usCountry}}“The 2019 novel coronavirus is a punishment by nature to humans’ unsanitary life styles. I promise with my life that the virus has nothing to do with the lab,” she said on social media app WeChat.
{{/usCountry}}In a short interview with state television channel CGTN on Monday, Shi defended China’s transparency in handling the outbreak and emphasised the need for more research on viruses.
“If we want to protect humans from viruses or avoid a second outbreak of new infectious diseases, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and then give early warnings,” she said.
“And we must be able to store some drugs and reagents for detection, prevention or treatment for future prevention and control,” Shi added.
Like other leading Chinese scientists involved in epidemic control in China, Shi denied her institute was the origin of the novel coronavirus. Shi said her institute shared its data with the world and the WHO was well informed about breakthroughs.
“Later, we, along with two other medical institutes in our country, submitted the whole genome sequence of the virus to WHO on January 12, 2020,” she said.
“At the same time, we also uploaded other sequences to a gene library called GISAID, which is used by governments and scientists around the world to identify pathogens, to develop vaccines and screen drugs.”
Earlier this month, Shi denied rumours of “defecting to the West”, saying on WeChat: “Everything is all right for my family and me, dear friends!”
Posting nine recent photos, Shi added: “No matter how difficult things are, it (defecting) shall never happen. We’ve done nothing wrong. With strong belief in science, we will see the day when the clouds disperse and the sun shines.”