China’s ‘batwoman’ STILL doing ‘potentially catastrophic’ virus tests 5 years after Covid ‘lab leak’ left millions dead
China’s ‘batwoman’ STILL doing ‘potentially catastrophic’ virus tests 5 years after Covid ‘lab leak’ left millions dead
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A CHINESE scientist at the centre of the Covid origins debate is still carrying out "risky" research on coronaviruses, scientists have warned. Shi Zhengli, 60, earned herself the nickname of China's "batwoman" as one of the world's leading scientists working on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan.
![[Portrait of Shi Zhengli.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/9bec282d-35e6-4605-82e0-9be40d793ca4.jpg?strip=all&w=519)
Her team at Wuhan Institute of Virology collected more than 20,000 samples from bat colonies in China over nearly two decades. Then, when a mystery pneumonia-like illness emerged just a stone's throw from the lab in late 2019, Shi was thrust into the spotlight.
![[Two scientists in protective suits work in a lab.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2017-file-photo-shi-zhengli-630438389.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Many scientists questioned whether the virus - which had unusual features suggesting it was genetically engineered - may have leaked from the lab. Five years later, a landmark congressional report has ruled that the "weight of the evidence" suggests it was a lab leak that sparked the pandemic - and left millions dead.
![[A woman in a red jacket uses a headlamp to observe a bat at night.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2004-shi-zhengli-releases-fruit-954447920.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Despite the report's damning conclusion, Shi and her team are still carrying out "risky" research, according to top scientists and virologists. Robert Redfield, the director of America's CDC during the pandemic, said the experiments have "potentially catastrophic consequences".
![[Woman smiling outdoors.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/NINTCHDBPICT000954443635.jpg?strip=all&w=922)
In a paper published in Nature, Shi and a team of scientists boasted they had built the first "customised" coronavirus "receptors". In other words, Shi is creating the building blocks to change viruses so that they can infect different species - including humans, Mr Redfield said.
![[Dr. Shi Zhengli and Peter Daszak in a lab.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/6bcba003-a7a8-4ba6-9ba1-8213e04410ac.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
