As World health Organization (WHO) experts are set to launch a traceability investigation in Wuhan, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) publicly praised Shi Zhengli, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research, on the 15th, calling her an “advanced worker of the CAS” and even describing her achievements in virus research at length. The Wuhan Institute of Virus Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced on its official WeChat public number on the 15th that Liu Lijun, director of the National Recognition and Reward Office of the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, read out the relevant decision on the 15th, giving Shi Zhengli the title of “Advanced Worker of the Chinese Academy of Sciences”.
The New Coronavirus Institute also detailed Shi Zhengli’s research on New Coronavirus in a large article, and said that she was “the first to participate in the scientific and technological research on the prevention and control of the epidemic as the most important backbone” after the outbreak.
Shi Zhengli has been studying bats carrying coronaviruses for a long time, and was the first expert in China to isolate the new coronavirus in 2017 when she found that bats carried the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-related virus. She had also been questioned by outsiders as a key figure in the virus leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research.
The day before Chinese officials awarded Shi Zhengli the title of “Advanced Worker of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,” experts sent by the World Health Organization arrived in Wuhan, Hubei, on a flight to investigate the source of the outbreak after 14 days of quarantine.
When asked if she would invite WHO experts to the laboratory to investigate and put an end to questions, Shi wrote: “I have communicated with the WHO experts twice” and “I personally made it clear that they are welcome to visit the Wuhan Virus Institute.
When pressed on whether this would mean launching a formal investigation, such as allowing the experts access to lab data and records, Shi replied, “I personally welcome any kind of visit, based on openness, transparency, trust, reliability and reasonable dialogue. But the exact program should not be up to me.”
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