"The government organized something and..."/ The strong statement of the Chinese scientist: Covid may have come out of the laboratory

The possibility that the Covid virus leaked from a laboratory should not be ruled out, a former senior Chinese government scientist has told BBC News.

Former head of China's Center for Disease Control (CDC), George Gao played a key role in the response to the pandemic and efforts to trace its origins.

China's government has rejected any suggestion that the disease may have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan.

In an interview with, scientist Gao says: " You can always doubt anything. This is science. Do not rule anything out.”

Gao, who retired from the CDC last year, is now vice president of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

He also stated that some sort of official investigation had been conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

"The government organized something," he says, but adds that his China CDC department was not involved.

The scientist admitted that another branch of the government conducted official research at the IV laboratory, one of China's top national laboratories, which has been studying coronaviruses for several years.

"Yes", he admits, "that laboratory was checked twice by experts in the field." They are following all protocols but have found no wrongdoing."