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The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab suspected to have started the COVID-19 pandemic, is reportedly planning new "ominous" experiments, experts warned via the Daily Mail.
Last month, researchers found a new bat virus, HKU5-CoV-2, that enters human cells in a similar pathway to the coronavirus, raising concern that it could someday spread to humans. The newly found virus is reported to have a similar potential infection on human cells and could kill up to a third of patients.
Independent experts are now expressing concerns that the Wuhan Institute of Virology will conduct experiments on the new virus in similar fashion to the coronavirus after a U.S. select subcommittee concluded that it was the "most likely" source of the pathogen that resulted in the global pandemic. Dr. Alina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, shared concerns about the ongoing studies while speaking to the Daily Telegraph last month.
"The paper ends on an ominous note - describing a set of future experiments similar to what might've led to the Covid-19 pandemic ... they're going to study the viruses' ability to cause disease in humanized mice," Chan said.
Humanized mice are bred to have human cells or tissues with the intention of being used to better understand how viruses would infect human patients. Chan said she was also concerned that the Wuhan Institute of Virology wouldn't be equipped to safely conduct the ongoing research, specifically in a city with an estimated population exceeding 8 million.
'After what we experienced with Covid-19, I believe there is no biosafety level adequate for such experiments in the city of Wuhan,' she added.