CHINA deleted Covid data to cover up 'Patient Zero' as pressure mounts over an alleged lab leak, according to a shocking new study.
Explosive new claims have emerged that China deleted information about the origins of the virus that could have provided vital clues.
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The damning study suggests that vital data was deleted in China Credit: AFP
The study also suggests that the virus was wreaking havoc before it was detected in wet markets.
It also suggests that the early Covid viruses investigated by the World Health Organisation are not fully representative of the virus strains circulating in the early months.
The research paper, 'Recovery of deleted deep sequencing data sheds more light on the early Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 epidemic', was released by Professor Jesse Bloom, an associate professor at the Seattle-based Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center.
The data set containing SARS-CoV-2 sequences from early in the Wuhan epidemic was deleted from the National Institute of Health‘s Sequence Read Archive, according to the papers that came out today.
“I recover the deleted files from the Google Cloud, and reconstruct partial sequences of 13 early epidemic viruses,” Prof Boom writes in the abstract of the report.
COVER UP
And he found there is no plausible reason for the missing files that were deleted and the most likely explanation is that China deleted the material to “obscure their existence”.
“The fact that such an informative data set was deleted has implications beyond those gleaned directly from the recovered sequences. Samples from early outpatients in Wuhan are a gold mine for anyone seeking to understand the spread of the virus,” he wrote.
“Even my analysis of the partial sequences is revealing, and it clearly would have been more scientifically informative to fully sequence the samples rather than surreptitiously delete the partial sequences.
"There is no plausible scientific reason for the deletion: the sequences are perfectly concordant with the samples described in Wang et al. It therefore seems likely the sequences were deleted to obscure their existence.”
This comes after the British scientist who tried to silence the Wuhan lab leak theory has been removed from the United Nations commission investigating the the origins of Covid.
Dr Peter Daszak has been ousted from the UN-backed Lancet probe as he has repeatedly attempted to dismiss allegations the virus could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
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The data set containing SARS-CoV-2 sequences from early in the Wuhan epidemic was allegedly deleted Credit: Getty
Dr Daszak is the president of the EcoHealth Alliance - a US-based organisation that was revealed to have funneled taxpayer cash to WIV to carry out gain of function research of bat-based coronaviruses.
The 55-year-old has a close relationship with the lab's chief Dr Shi Zhengli - dubbed "Batwoman" - and was last year jovially tweeting about singing karaoke with her and "partying in a bat cave" amid the pandemic.
WIV however are the prime suspect as circumstantial evidence mounts that link the origins of the virus to a lab leak as the US ordered a "redoubled" probe.
Dr Daszak was part of the much derided WHO investigation which visited Wuhan early this year, only to have its findings dismissed as a "whitewash" and thne be undermined by WHO's director on the same day as its release.
He remains listed on the website of the The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, but his profile has been updated to reflect his departure.
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Under his photo and biography it now reads "recused from Commission work on the origins of the pandemic".
No further information was given - but Daszak has been widely blasted for appearing to have a conflict of interest over his links to WIV.
He was one of 28 experts from around the world asked to probe the origins of the virus and how best to respond to a pandemic.
Dr Peter Daszak was ousted from the probe after trying to shut down the lab-leak theory
Covid DID leak from a Wuhan lab and WHO is 'too compromised' to conduct investigation, ex-CDC director says