Closest known relatives of virus behind COVID-19 found in Laos https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02596-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02

Closest known relatives of virus behind COVID-19 found in Laos https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02596-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02596-2 The NIAID claimed that it didn't fund research into BANAL-52 and similar. "the closest known relatives of SARS-CoV-2 . . . were not studied under the EcoHealth Alliance grant" https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/coronavirus-bat-research https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/coronavirus-ba... However, that was recently revealed to be extremely unlikely, since bat coronavirus samples were in fact collected from Laos, where BANAL-52 was located. Even more suspiciously, the Laos genetic samples disappeared from the WIV database in late 2019. https://wap.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/wuhan-scientists-were-studying-laos-bat-viral-samples-before-covid-report-121112201019_1.html https://wap.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/wu...