Chinese Researcher Mapped COVID-19 Weeks Before Official Disclosure

The delay in sharing the virus sequence could have impacted the global response and vaccine development, raising concerns about Beijing's transparency.

Documents obtained from the US Department of Health and Human Services indicate that a Chinese researcher, Dr. Lili Ren, had isolated and mapped the structure of COVID-19 at least two weeks before Beijing officially acknowledged the virus.
Dr. Ren uploaded almost the entire sequence of COVID-19 to a US government-run database on December 28, 2019, while Beijing presented similar information to the World Health Organization on January 11, 2020.
The two-week delay could have played a crucial role in shaping the global response to the pandemic and expediting COVID-19 vaccine development.
Dr. Ren's work was never published on the site; instead, it was deleted after she failed to address technical issues unrelated to the scientific merit of her submission.
The revelation has raised concerns about potential interference from Beijing and underscores the need for further investigation into the knowledge of Chinese and US health officials in the pandemic's early days.