The lab leak, the missing scientists, the cover-up: Piecing together 'What Really Happened in Wuhan'
In her 'What Really Happened in Wuhan' documentary, award-winning journalist Sharri Markson detailed the evidence COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab.
Explosive revelations about the origins of COVID-19 have been revealed in a documentary by award-winning journalist Sharri Markson.
Ms Markson spent more than a year investigating the potential leak of the virus from a top-secret laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Her 'What Really Happened in Wuhan' documentary on Sky News Australia uncovered evidence a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology first occurred in September, 2019.
The lab leak
On the September 12, 2019, the virus database at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was taken offline, and with it 22,000 coronavirus samples were gone.
That same day security was beefed up at the facility and a tender was issued to replace the air-conditioning system. There was later a communications blackout, with no cell-phone or signals activity.
The institute also went on a spending spree, purchasing an air medical waste incinerator and PCR equipment to test for coronaviruses.
"Listen the people that had the most access to the most intelligence, are telling you that the most likely origin of COVID-19, of the Wuhan virus was what happened… was a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology," John Ratcliffe, former United States Director of National Intelligence, said.
"This is really most likely what happened and it's more than just a possibility, it's certainly a probability and it's probably a certainty."
Intelligence was received that three people working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had fallen sick in October 2019, two months before the first official case was reported.
"What (former Secretary of State) Mike Pompeo and I put out is people became sick at the lab in October and with symptoms that became entirely consistent with what most people have experienced around the world from COVID-19," Mr Ratcliffe said.
Mr Ratcliffe was quizzed on what he thought had happened to those employees.
"What I can say is that from the intelligence perspective, is we know that some of the people that were most involved, either infected or reporting on or whistle blowing on or trying to get answers and journalists report on, have been difficult to track down later, at least from my time there," he said.
"And so I think that's consistent with what the Chinese Communist Party does. The status of those individuals and why they've disappeared, I really can't comment on that."
'Patient zero'
One of those three researchers working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was Huang Yanling, who disappeared from the institute's website in early 2020.
Her social media presence also vanished. She has not been seen since.
Many believe she was infected with COVID-19 and was 'patient zero', despite Beijing's denials.
Mr Ratcliffe said it quickly became clear there was a virus spreading in Wuhan.
"In late 2019 we have intelligence from both human intelligence sources and signals intelligence sources and other intelligence sources that were telling us that there was some sort of a problem in Wuhan," he said.
Mr Ratcliffe said the Chinese Communist Party would not have silenced doctors, scientists and journalists if there was just a naturally occurring virus from someone who "ate a bat".
"If there was really no blame here, if this was really just some naturally occurring virus because someone ate a bat from a wet market, China wouldn't have done the things that they did," he said.
"The Chinese Communist Party would not have shut down Wuhan. They would not have silenced doctors and scientists and journalists and disappeared some of them."
China's 'cover-up'
He said there was still compelling intelligence the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology that has not been declassified.
https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/global-affairs/the-lab-leak-the-missing-scientists-the-coverup-piecing-together-what-really-happened-in-wuhan/news-story/122d7cab3d2db39103d75085edb85195