WSJ: 3 Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers believed to seek hospital care in November 2019

Wuhan Institute of Virology
(Image credit: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images)

A previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report says three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology got sick enough to visit the hospital in November 2019, around the time the COVID-19 outbreak first appeared in its Wuhan epicenter, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The report "could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the COVID-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory," the Journals says.

A State Department fact sheet released Jan. 15, in the final days of the Trump administration, said several researchers at the lab became sick in the fall of 2019 "with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness." That fact sheet was based on U.S. intelligence, the Journal says. Current and former U.S. officials differed on how credible the more specific, newly reported intelligence is, though they agreed it doesn't indicate what caused any researchers to fall ill.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.