Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli is one of the world's top researchers on coronaviruses and has discovered dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves.
She studied samples taken from some of the first people to become infected with the new and then-mysterious respiratory illness in China in December and found it was similar to SARS.
It was identified as a novel coronavirus and within three days she completed its gene sequencing, finding that it was 96 per cent identical to a virus found in horseshoe bats in Yunnan.
But she was "muzzled" and her team was ordered not to reveal any information about the new disease, which was already spreading rapidly as China kept the world in the dark.
The claims are the latest to emerge after a cover-up by Chinese authorities who failed to share information or issue warnings early on and, ultimately, contain a virus that emerged in Wuhan and then spread around the world, leading to tens of thousands of deaths and more than a million confirmed infections.
Chinese journalist Gao Yu said he spoke to Shi during his incarceration in Wuhan, which was locked down for more than two months, and she told him her findings were hushed up.
The journalist added: "We learned later her institute finished gene-sequencing and related tests as early as January 2 but was muzzled."
The information about gene sequencing wasn't made public until a week later.
The day that the genetic information was mapped, Yanyi Wang, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, ordered staff not to reveal any information about the disease, it is claimed.
After local doctors were detained for warning locals about the virus, the director claimed "inappropriate and inaccurate information" was causing "general panic".
So, it sure looks like the spread of covid-19 was due to a cover-up and delays in alerting everyone to the appearance of this new virus?
It's life Jim, but not as WE know it.
Live long and prosper.
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