A forensic analysis shows that the Wuhan Insitute of Virology (WIV) was genetically manipulating the Nipah virus, a highly lethal pathogen, in violation of the biological weapons convention, according to an expert who testified at a Senate subcommittee hearing on Aug. 3.
The finding was another piece of evidence showing that the controversial Wuhan lab was conducting gain-of-function research—experiments that ultimately resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic via a leak from the facility, said Dr. Steven Quay, chief executive officer of Atossa Therapeutics. Gain-of-function research involves enhancing the potency or transmissibility of a virus.
Quay said he and other scientists conducted an examination of COVID-19 patient specimens from December 2019 sequenced and published by the WIV. Through that analysis, published in a pre-print paper that has not been peer-reviewed, they found 20 unexpected contaminants that they believed were evidence of other research conducted at the lab….