Chilling footage has emerged appearing to show Wuhan scientists being careless with PPE and being bitten by bats which can carry coronaviruses, two years before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
The video from 2017 features scientist Shi Zhengli, nicknamed “Batwoman,” with her team as they try to find out more about the SARS virus.
Scientists in the video have been branded “lax” for their laid-back approach to safety measures in the shocking footage.
The now-horrifying scenes come just days after the global death toll from Covid-19 topped 2 million. Bats are believed to be one of the possible sources of the virus.
In one frame of the video, scientists are seen holding a bat with their bare hands. In another, they pick up bat excrement while wearing short-sleeved T-shirts.
While some scientists are seen in hazmat suits handling the bats, others are standing in shot without wearing any protection at all.
Back in the lab, two scientists are seen handling samples that are allegedly from “three live viruses” – but no one is wearing a mask.
Virus researcher Cui Jie recalls being bitten by a bat – a feeling he describes as similar to being “jabbed with a needle” as its teeth went straight through his glove.
Then an alarming shot zooms in on a bat bite, showing swelling all over a person’s limb.
According to The Taiwan Times, the so-called Batwoman had previously bragged that her job was “not as dangerous as everyone thinks”.
The claims were made in an article on the China Science Exploration Centre that has now been deleted.
In the same article, it’s alleged she claimed the chances of a bat passing on a virus to humans was “very small.”
Now there are calls for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to question the team during an upcoming investigative trip to Wuhan, as concerns have been raised about the practices of the lab.
