Chinese scientists mapped out the genetic makeup of the pandemic-causing coronavirus nearly a month before it was made public, raising questions about what those scientists knew and when they knew it.
A congressional committee obtained federal government documents showing that Dr Lili Ren, a scientist at the Beijing-based Institute of Pathogen Biology, sequenced the novel virus on December 28, which at the time the government was calling viral pneumonia ‘of unknown cause’.
It confirms suspicions that the Chinese were studying the virus before announcing it to the world – a delay experts say cost countless of lives.
The fully sequenced virus – which would have allowed scientists to begin developing drugs and vaccines, and given them a better understanding of how the virus behaves – was not made available to the World Health Organization until January 11.
Hellbound and Down 