<p>The Chinese scientist at the centre of theories that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a leak from her specialised lab in the city of Wuhan has denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster.</p>.<p>"How on earth can I offer up evidence for something where there is no evidence?" Dr Shi Zhengli told the <em>New York Times</em> in rare comments to the media.</p>.<p>"I don't know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist," she told the US daily.</p>.<p>US President Joe Biden last month ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the origin of the pandemic, including the lab leak theory.</p>.<p>The leak hypothesis had been floated earlier during the global outbreak, including by Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, but was widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/g7-leaders-discuss-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-behind-covid-19-pandemic-997038.html" target="_blank">G7 leaders discuss Wuhan lab leak theory behind Covid-19 pandemic</a></strong></p>.<p>But it has gained increasing traction recently, fueled by reports that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in 2019 after visiting a bat cave in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.</p>.<p>Shi is an expert in bat coronaviruses, and some scientists have said she could have been leading so-called "gain-of-function" experiments in which scientists increase the strength of a virus to better study its effects on hosts.</p>.<p>According to the New York Times, in 2017 Shi and her colleagues at the Wuhan laboratory published a report on an experiment "in which they created new hybrid bat coronaviruses by mixing and matching parts of several existing ones - including at least one that was nearly transmissible to humans - in order to study their ability to infect and replicate in human cells."</p>.<p>But in an email to the paper, Shi said her experiments differed from gain-of-function experiments since they did not seek to make a virus more dangerous. Instead they were trying to understand how the virus might jump across species.</p>.<p>"My lab has never conducted or cooperated in conducting GOF experiments that enhance the virulence of viruses," she said.</p>
<p>The Chinese scientist at the centre of theories that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a leak from her specialised lab in the city of Wuhan has denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster.</p>.<p>"How on earth can I offer up evidence for something where there is no evidence?" Dr Shi Zhengli told the <em>New York Times</em> in rare comments to the media.</p>.<p>"I don't know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist," she told the US daily.</p>.<p>US President Joe Biden last month ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the origin of the pandemic, including the lab leak theory.</p>.<p>The leak hypothesis had been floated earlier during the global outbreak, including by Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, but was widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/g7-leaders-discuss-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-behind-covid-19-pandemic-997038.html" target="_blank">G7 leaders discuss Wuhan lab leak theory behind Covid-19 pandemic</a></strong></p>.<p>But it has gained increasing traction recently, fueled by reports that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in 2019 after visiting a bat cave in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.</p>.<p>Shi is an expert in bat coronaviruses, and some scientists have said she could have been leading so-called "gain-of-function" experiments in which scientists increase the strength of a virus to better study its effects on hosts.</p>.<p>According to the New York Times, in 2017 Shi and her colleagues at the Wuhan laboratory published a report on an experiment "in which they created new hybrid bat coronaviruses by mixing and matching parts of several existing ones - including at least one that was nearly transmissible to humans - in order to study their ability to infect and replicate in human cells."</p>.<p>But in an email to the paper, Shi said her experiments differed from gain-of-function experiments since they did not seek to make a virus more dangerous. Instead they were trying to understand how the virus might jump across species.</p>.<p>"My lab has never conducted or cooperated in conducting GOF experiments that enhance the virulence of viruses," she said.</p>