The COVID-19 virus was made in a laboratory in China and was part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) biological warfare program.

That much is clear. The matter yet to be resolved is the manner of its release, whether accidental or deliberate.

There is growing evidence of a laboratory accident occurring in November 2019.

Although lacking confirmation, there remain persistent rumors of a deliberate release of the COVID-19 virus by the PLA, one scenario being at the 7th CISM Military World Games held in Wuhan from October 18–27, 2019.

In my May 20, 2021 Gateway Pundit article, I cited a source inside China claiming:

1. A fully-formed or nearly fully-formed COVID-19 virus arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virology from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command in the early months of 2019.
2. Contrary to the popular narrative, the COVID-19 virus was sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology primarily for testing.
3. The testing was assigned to a group of young virologists. The name of the leader of that group is known and the leader’s scientific background is consistent with that role.
4. Testing was done on non-human primates.

There are two important points to remember regarding that information.

First, the PLA Eastern Theater Command, whose headquarters is in Nanjing, is the same entity, which isolated ZC45 and ZXC21, the bat coronaviruses Chinese whistleblower Dr. Li-Meng Yang says provided the backbone for the laboratory manufacture of the COVID-19 virus.

Second, the non-human primate tests, likely led by Wuhan Institute of Virology scientist Chao Shan, were probably not conducted in its Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in Jiangxia District, but at Wuhan University’s ABSL-3 animal laboratory in Wuchang District, the epicenter of the early outbreak.

Even the “Bat Woman” Zheng-Li Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology said that the Jiangxia Biosafety Level 4 facility did not use non-human primates before the outbreak.

In addition, the presumed leader of the COVID-19 non-human primate experiments, Chao Shan, lists his professional address, not at the Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in Jiangxia, but at the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Biosafety Level 3 facility on Keji Road, close to Wuhan University’s ABSL-3 laboratory.

Additional evidence, some of which may be considered “smoking guns,” has now emerged supporting the contention that the COVID-19 virus might have been released from the Wuhan University’s ABSL-3 animal laboratory while conducting pathogenicity and transmissibility studies, perhaps infecting workers in that facility.

Although previously honored in 2016 as a Leading Talent of the National “Ten Thousand Talents Program,” on May 6, 2020, Hongliang Li was abruptly removed as Director of the Animal Experiment Center of Wuhan University and as the Director of the ABSL-3 laboratory of Wuhan University, according to the report:

“After investigation, no falsification was found, but many papers were found to have the misuse of images, reflecting a lack of rigorous processing of experimental data.”

Afterward, an extensive series of safety inspections of Wuhan University’s ABSL-3 laboratory were undertaken and new safety protocols were announced on August 24, 2020, specifically addressing coronavirus research.

There is other circumstantial evidence that something unusual happened at Wuhan University in November 2019.

The preponderance of evidence indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic might have originated in the Wuhan University’s ABSL-3 animal laboratory.  But is it the pandemic perpetrator or the scapegoat for a more nefarious PLA operation?

Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is retired from an international career in business and medical research with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. His email address is lawrence.sellin@gmail.com.

(The author wishes to acknowledge the contributions of COVID-19 detectives @ann95657173 and @TorontoFarmEN)