It’s a small statement with big implications. Professor George Gao found himself at the forefront of the fight against the global Covid-19 pandemic when he was director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A responsibility he left last year. Like many scientists around the world, the origin of the coronavirus remains a mystery. If the hypothesis of direct contamination from an animal to humans is the most accepted, that of a laboratory leak from Wuhan is increasingly taken seriously, as is the case for the Academy. French medicine.
This possibility has always been officially refuted by China, to the point of even aggravating many diplomatic tensions, especially with the United States. Hence the surprise caused by the statement of Professor Gao, invited by BBC, when he was much less categorical on this issue: “You can always suspect anything. It’s science. Don’t exclude anything. »
Also according to George Gao, the Wuhan lab was inspected several times without anything suspicious being found. However, his speech, against the official version, is surprising. It can even be considered risky in some ways. “We really don’t know where this virus comes from… the question remains open,” he concluded with our British colleagues. What China has always hammered.
