The Arabic website reported on Shi Zhengli, the scientist at the Wuhan lab in China that is suspected of being the source of the coronavirus. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic over two years ago, the name of the Chinese scientist Shi Zhengli has become a target for those who believe that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a potential source of the outbreak. However, the woman who has spent most of her professional life researching bats, even earning the nickname "bat woman," strongly denied in a rare interview that the lab at the center of many speculations and accusations was the source of the coronavirus outbreak, asserting that she has no fear of investigations.
In an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, she expressed that she is certain she did nothing wrong, indicating that she has nothing to fear. She also emphasized that her lab "did not conduct or cooperate in conducting GOF experiments that increase the virulence of viruses." She argued that her research aimed to understand how "the pathogen in the virus transmits," rather than how to make viruses more dangerous.
Regarding the report that stated some researchers from the lab were hospitalized with flu-like symptoms before China reported its first case of COVID-19, Shi reiterated that the lab did not encounter cases of individuals treated in hospitals and requested that The New York Times provide the names of the researchers so the lab can "verify."
