A Chinese laboratory was carrying out experiments on bats from the cave thought to be 'ground zero' for the coronavirus pandemic years before the outbreak, it is claimed.
According to reports, scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been probing flying mammals from caves in Yunnan since 2011 - where it is thought the deadly Covid-19 bug came from.
The research was then published in November 2017 under the heading "Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses provides new insights into the origin of SARS coronavirus." It is further claimed the research was paid for by a $3.7m grant from the US government.