Chris Lange, FISM News

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The first three patients infected with COVID-19 were researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, according to an investigative report published on Tuesday. The findings appear to confirm a hypothesis that got numerous scientists and medical experts ridiculed, silenced, and punished for questioning the “natural origin” theory.

The report by investigative journalists Michael Schellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag was posted on Schellenberger’s “Public” Substack platform. Through a series of interviews with “multiple U.S. government officials,” the journalists identified Wuhan lab researchers Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu as “patients zero” of the 2020 global pandemic.

"According to multiple US government officials..the first people infected by the virus, 'patients zero,' included Ben Hu, a researcher who led..WIV’s 'gain-of-function' research on SARS-like coronaviruses, which increases the infectiousness of viruses." https://t.co/txhIR3bw8o pic.twitter.com/TK12tFvQsQ

— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) June 13, 2023

“After years of official claims to the contrary, strong new evidence suggests the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a Chinese lab,” Shellenberger wrote in a tweet that included the final report.  “According to multiple sources, the researchers who led gain-of-function research, which increases infectiousness, were the first to be infected,” he continued.

Hu led the Wuhan Institute’s (WIV) “‘gain-of-function’ research on SARS-like coronaviruses, which increases the infectiousness of viruses,” according to the report. Hu is reportedly the protégé of Shi Zhengli – China’s so-called “batwoman” scientist – Dr. Alina Chan, Scientific Advisor at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, told Public. Zhengli earned the moniker for her extensive gain-of-function research on bat viruses.

The Public report references a 2017 video purporting to show Hu observing another WIV researcher handling lab specimens, during which neither appeared to be wearing protective gear.

Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to conceal the origins of the pandemic and resulting deaths, the media widely reported that some WIV scientists exhibited COVID-like symptoms in November 2019. The Public report, however, is the first to trace the virus origins directly to the three researchers.

It wasn’t until Jan.  7, 2020, that public health officials in China acknowledged the existence of a contagious novel coronavirus. More than three months later, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially designated COVID-19 as a pandemic, according to a timeline published on the Centers for Disease Control website.

The report also noted that the Directorate of National Intelligence is expected to de-classify material on the origins of COVID-19 later this month.

At the onset of the pandemic, former White House chief medical advisor and National Institutes for Health Director Dr. Anthony Fauci vigorously pushed the idea that the virus occurred in nature through human-to-animal contact while images of Chinese wet markets appeared on nearly every media outlet in the U.S. and beyond.  But the “natural origin” theory appeared to puzzle some scientists and infectious disease experts who argued that animal-to-human transmission of the virus was highly improbable and that it most likely resulted from a lab accident.

While Fauci’s theory of the pandemic’s origins may have led some to question his motive and medical expertise, few could argue that he excelled remarkably in silencing his dissenters. Those who dared to disagree with the natural origin narrative found themselves ridiculed as “conspiracy theorists” and subjected to social media bans, with the help of the Trump and Biden administrations and Big Tech, according to a December 2022 “Twitter files” report by author and Free Press reporter David Zweig.

A handful of non-approved discussions, however, managed to trickle through the Big Tech censorship barriers, including an intriguing report that appeared to explain the impetus for Fauci’s censorship campaign. Social media users willing to take the time to wade through pages of account ban notifications and warning labels began to learn that the NIH, under Fauci’s leadership, may have funded gain-of-function research at the WIV into whether bat coronaviruses could infect humans.

The Intercept published a report in September 2021 indicating that the NIH awarded a $3.1 million gain-of-function research grant to EcoHealth Alliance for the purpose of researching bat coronaviruses, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.  The grant included nearly $600,000 in funds for the WIV to “alter bat coronaviruses likely to infect humans.”

Fauci laughingly, and then angrily, denied the reports.

In the following month, however, the NIH admitted that it had, in fact, used taxpayer dollars to fund gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses in a letter to the House Oversight Committee.

In January 2022, the Committee released emails showing that Fauci was “aware of the potential that COVID-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute Virology (WIV) and …the possibility that the virus was intentionally genetically manipulated.” Moreover, they revealed that Fauci “concealed information about COVID-19 originating from the Wuhan lab” and “intentionally downplayed the lab leak theory.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has been listed as the cause of death of 6,941,095 people, among which 1,127,152 were U.S. citizens, as of June 7, 2023, according to World Health Organization (WHP) data.

This article was partially informed by The Daily Caller, and the New York Post reports.