Fauci asks China to disclose data of laboratory employees in Wuhan

Top US infectologist tells 'Financial Times' he would like to see medical records of Chinese city virology lab employees
The top infectious disease expert in the United States, Anthony Fauci, has asked China to release the medical records of nine people whose illnesses may provide vital clues to whether Covid-19 arose as a result of a laboratory leak, the Financial Times reported on Thursday (3).
"I would like to see the medical records of the three people who allegedly became ill in 2019. Did they really get sick, and if so, what did they get sick with?"Fauci said, according to the newspaper report.
The origin of the new coronavirus is strongly disputed, with US intelligence agencies still examining reports that researchers at a Chinese Virology Laboratory in Wuhan became seriously ill in 2019, a month before the first cases of Covid-19 were reported.
However, Chinese scientists and officials have consistently rejected the laboratory leak hypothesis, saying the virus could have been circulating in other regions before reaching Wuhan and could even have entered China through shipments of imported frozen food or wildlife trade.
A spokesman for China's foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, declined to comment directly on whether China would release the records of the nine people, but strongly denied that the lab was related to the Covid-19 outbreak.
At a regular meeting this Friday (4), he referred to a March 23 statement from the Wuhan Institute of Virology that said that no employee had contracted the virus.
Wang reiterated China's position that reports of laboratory leaks are a "conspiracy theory."
The Financial Times reported that Fauci continues to believe that the virus was first transmitted to humans through animals, pointing out that even if lab researchers had Covid-19, they could have contracted the disease in the general population.