In the latest development in China, as many as 6000 people in Lanzhou tested positive for brucellosis. The local government confirmed that it is a bacterial disease as per a Reuters report. The major reason is due to a leak at a vaccine plant more than a year ago.
As per Global Times, as many as 55,725 people are tested and 6620 are said to be positive. It has been learnt that this is a massive spike from 3245 cases on September 14.
People contract this brucellosis owing to direct contact with infected animals. Not just by contact but also by eating or drinking contaminated animal products or by breathing airborne agents as per WHO.
Meanwhile, Lanzhou’s health commission’s statement confirmed that this bacterial disease originated at a biopharmaceutical factory which is owned by China Animal Husbandry Industry Co. The factory had used expired disinfectants from July to August 2019.
By doing so, the contaminated waste gas generated aerosols and the wind carried them down to the Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute. It was where the bacterial disease was recorded in November 2019, as per the commission. According to Global Times, the brucellosis vaccine production workshop was shut down in late 2019.
Earlier, Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan has made a big revelation about the novel coronavirus, claiming that Covid-19 was created in a government controlled laboratory in Wuhan. She asserted that she has scientific proof to back the claim.
Yan previously stated in an interview with Taiwan News that the coronavirus was developed in a Chinese military facility controlled by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
According to Yan, who became the whistleblower against the Chinese government over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, China deliberately hid the reality of COVID-19 outbreak from the world.
After leaving China, she had left for the US and has been living there since then. She said that she had received threats after taking her concerns to her superiors and a World Health Organization contractor researching the virus, a claim that the WHO has denied.
Dr Yan said in a July interview with Spanish daily El Mundo that she was collating “solid evidence” to demonstrate that the novel coronavirus did not originate in nature having previously stated that the official story of Covid-19 flaring up in a wet market in Wuhan where live animals were sold was “a smokescreen.”
“No one responded, people are scared of the government and they are waiting to collaborate with the government and WHO to get more benefits to become safe but this is [was] something urgent,” Dr Li-Meng said.
Dr Li-Meng revealed that she was scared as she was receiving threats but “I knew if I didn’t tell the world the truth I would be regretful.”
Speaking to British broadcaster ITV, the virologist said of the evidence she is collating: “Anybody, even people without any knowledge of biology, will be able to read it and check it, and to verify it for themselves. The genome sequence is like a fingerprint. Based on that, you can identify things. I will use this evidence to tell people why this [the coronavirus] came from a laboratory in China and why they are the ones who developed it.”
The virologist said she is working on a scientific report since January. “We are going to publish it. There are two reports, the first one will come in several days and it will tell people about the scientific evidence,” she said.
Dr Yan has been hiding in the US for fear of reprisals regarding her revelations. She has claimed that China is bent upon tarnishing her reputation. “They deleted all information about me and also told people to spread rumours about me,” she said. In an earlier interview, Dy Yan said that China was aware of the existence of Covid-19 long before the first cases were officially reported in Wuhan last December.