The Australian bureau of Sky News says it has obtained video from inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology revealing that live bats were kept in cages within the facility.
That counters denials from World Health Organization investigators who said bats were only kept at an annex. The WHO said the animal room within the P4 facility was focused on "primate work with SARS-CoV-2.”
In a December 2020 tweet, the WHO said, “No BATS were sent to Wuhan lab for genetic analysis of viruses collected in the field. That’s now how this science works. We collect bat samples, send them to the lab. We RELEASE bats where we catch them!” Another tweet said, "They DO NOT have live or dead bats in them (the labs)."
The official video from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, intended to mark the lab's opening in May 2017, features interviews with its top scientists. One discusses security precautions in place if “an accident” occurs. The video also shows bats in a cage and a scientist feeding one a worm.
The 10 minute video is titled “The construction and research team of Wuhan P4 laboratory of Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.”
A digital archivist found the footage while performing research for a book.
IMAGE: Official Chinese government video