A Short History of China’s Biohazard Accidents — before COVID-19

With suspicions growing over a possible lab leak tied to the coronavirus pandemic, China’s startling lab-safety record merits close examination.

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A technician inspects anti-cancer drugs in vials at a lab of a pharmaceutical company in Lianyungang, China March 13, 2019.

China Stringer Network/Reuters

‘While there is always some risk for lab accidents, risk is not reality.” — Lim Poh Lian, senior consultant at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases in Singapore, to National Public Radio, April 23, 2020.

2004: In the aftermath of a small outbreak of the original SARS virus, well after the main outbreak that ended in summer 2003, a WHO investigation concluded that the Beijing Centers for Disease Control made critical errors in handling samples of the virus. “The patient was allowed to travel between Beijing and her home province of Anhui, to the west of Shanghai, while sick . . . the patient received medical care in both Beijing and Anhui but was still allowed to travel while sick, despite her high risk occupation and the fact that her mother also had a fever. The mother subsequently died.”

Jim Geraghty

About the Author

Jim Geraghty

Jim Geraghty is the senior political correspondent of National Review.

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