WHO team scientist: Wuhan lab workers fell sick in 2019

Source: WHO team scientist: Wuhan lab workers fell sick in 2019
Publisher: NBC News | Author: Keir Simmons
Published: March 11, 2021 | Archived: July 18, 2026

Transcript

0:00 Keir Simmons: Tonight with still so many questions about the origins of the coronavirus in China. This revelation from a member of the World Health Organization team who was just in Wuhan. Some researchers working at a Wuhan lab studying coronaviruses did get sick. Did some researchers get sick with flu like symptoms in the fall of 2019?

0:22 Marian Koopmans: There were occasional illness because that’s there was nothing that stood out.

0:29 Keir Simmons: Do you remember how many researchers?

0:31 Marian Koopmans: Maybe one or two. It’s certainly not a big thing.

0:37 Keir Simmons: A State Department fact sheet in January alleged several researchers inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in autumn 2019. Marion Koopman says China told the WHO team the lab researchers tested negative for SARS Covid 2 in March, April 2020. She says the evidence does not point to a lab leak.

0:59 Marian Koopmans: We really have not seen any evidence of credible lab associated case.

1:08 Keir Simmons: A 300 page World Health Organization joint report with China will soon be published. But a week ago, a group of 20 scientists wrote an open letter saying saying the WHO team was never given proper access and has to clear its report with Chinese scientists, quote, greatly compromising the scientific validity of its findings.

1:30 Marian Koopmans: What we want to see is a more independent, proper investigation of how the origin started.

1:39 Keir Simmons: China says letting the WHO team in demonstrates its openness. The Biden administration continues to question China’s transparency.