Wuhan Institute of Virology

Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is a laboratory in Wuhan, China to study viruses administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences under control of the CCP Discipline Inspection Commission. The lab is near the site where the Communist Party of China claims the Wuhan virus was first detected in December 2019.

The lab was founded in 1956 as the Wuhan Microbiology Laboratory. It has received a total of $7.4 million in grants from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a U.S. agency led by Dr. Anthony Fauci. In 2015, the lab was upgraded to biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) with the help of French engineers. It is first such lab in China. SARS escaped from a Beijing lab twice in 2004 and the upgrade was intended to address this problem. In January 2018 U.S. embassy officials in Beijing warned about safety risks at the Wuhan lab researching infectious diseases, including coronaviruses from bats. One of two "Sensitive but Unclassified" U.S. State Department cables warned about biosecurity and management problems at the lab.

In February 2020, Major General Chen Wei, described as China's top biowarfare expert, was placed in charge of the lab. CCP boss Yuan Zhiming denied that his lab is the source of the Wuhan virus.

History

In 1956, the Wuhan Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences was established. In November 1961, the Wuhan Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences was renamed the Central South Institute of Microbiology. In October 1962, the Central South Institute of Microbiology was renamed to the Wuhan Institute of Microbiology. In 1966, the local branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was relegated to the leadership of Hubei Province. In 1970, it was renamed to the Hubei Institute of Microbiology. In 1978, before the Science and Technology Conference, it returned to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was renamed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2002, it entered the sequence of the National Science and Technology Innovation Projects of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2003, the “One, Three, Five” (One goal with 3 five-year) Plan was carried out. In November 2004, the establishment of the State Key Laboratory of Virology was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology. The lab is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, and supervised by both Wuhan University and Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In January 2012, the China Virus Resource Center of the Institute was approved by China Quality Certification Center, and obtained ISO9001: 2008 quality management system certificate, ISO14001: 2004 environmental management system certificate, and GB / T28001-2001 occupational health and safety management system certificate. In June, the Animal Experiment Center of Zhengdian Science Park of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences began operation. In 2012, Public Technical Service Center of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s was established and consisted of an analysis and testing center, a BSL-3 laboratory, an experimental animal center, a radioisotope laboratory, and a network information center. In 2014, the first action plan of the Big Science Center was launched. In January 2015, China’s first laboratory with the highest level of biosafety protection, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory (namely, Wuhan BSL-4 Laboratory) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was completed. In December, it was rated as a civilized unit in Hubei Province. In July 2016, the Wuhan Institute of Virology held a ground-breaking ceremony for a comprehensive experimental research base of virology and biosafety. In January 2018, Wuhan National Biosafety Level 4 Laboratory (BSL-4 Laboratory) passed the national standard.

State Department Fact Sheet

A U.S. State Department Fact Sheet issued in January 2021 stated:

1. Illnesses inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV):

The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses. This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli’s public claim that there was “zero infection” among the WIV’s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses.

Accidental infections in labs have caused several previous virus outbreaks in China and elsewhere, including a 2004 SARS outbreak in Beijing that infected nine people, killing one.

The CCP has prevented independent journalists, investigators, and global health authorities from interviewing researchers at the WIV, including those who were ill in the fall of 2019. Any credible inquiry into the origin of the virus must include interviews with these researchers and a full accounting of their previously unreported illness.

The State Department also observed that — at least since 2016 — the WIV had been involved with researching bat coronavirus that is 96.2% similar to the SARS-CoV-2, the Wuhan coronavirus. WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli had previously said that the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 didn’t match.

Moreover, the State Department says the WIV hasn’t been transparent about their studies and said a full accounting was needed for why the WIV altered and removed their records about the bat coronavirus and other viruses.

The State Department also observes that the WIV has conducted “secret projects with China’s military” and did “classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.”

See also

• Technocracy