A lab technician handles samples in the P3, the Pasteur Institute’s laboratory dedicated to the Ebola virus, in Bangui, the Central African Republic, on May 31, 2018. (Florent Vergnes/AFP via Getty Images)
By Noé Chartier
A Chinese military-linked scientist who previously worked at Canada’s top biosafety laboratory has been involved in the engineering of a virus to replicate Ebola for conducting research in lower biosafety facilities.
Researching deadly viruses in lower safety conditions in China’s laboratories has been among the points of concern raised by scientists in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yan Feihu, who spent time at the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg under the supervision of fired scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Cheng Keding Cheng, is listed as an author on a recent paper by Chinese scientists outlining their Ebola-linked research.
The scientists created a new recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus by using Ebola virus glycoprotein, with the stated purpose of needing to research Ebola countermeasures in a biosafety level-2 (BSL-2) facility. Lethal viruses like Ebola can only be studied under biosafety level-4 conditions.
The virus created by the Chinese scientists resulted in the death of all healthy hamsters used in their experiment.
Researchers wrote the hamsters developed multi-organ failure, an eye inflammation called uveitis, and “severe systemic diseases resembling symptoms of human [Ebola] patients.”
Dr. Richard H. Ebright, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University, says a lab leak of the new Chinese-made Ebola-like virus would be “unlikely” to pose a threat to human health, but that further verification is needed due to the safety risks present.
In a statement provided to the media including The Epoch Times, Dr. Ebright said it’s “imperative to verify that the novel chimeric virus does not infect and replicate in human cells, and does not pose risk of infectivity, transmissibility, and pathogenicity in humans, before proceeding with studies at biosafety level 2.”
Dr. Ebright raised public concerns early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic about bat coronaviruses being studied under BSL-2 conditions in China, given the possibility the virus leaked from a lab.
Scientists with expertise in biosafety also raised this concern privately, according to emails obtained by public health research group U.S. Right to Know.
“I’m afraid that it may be way too late to find much out but it should be attempted, including the bsl2 and bsl3 labs where I suspect the risk for accidental release is greater,” James LeDuc, a former director at the Galveston National Laboratory, wrote to David Franz, a former commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, in May 2021 regarding a letter published in Science magazine calling for the investigation of SARS-CoV-2 origins.
Amid China’s lack of transparency, the debate about the origins of the virus is not settled almost five years on, including within governments. For example, there is dissension within the U.S. intelligence community, with the FBI judging a lab leak is most likely, whereas other agencies assess the initial infection was most likely caused by natural exposure.
Ebola Strains
In the latest study, the Chinese scientists generated a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus by replacing its glycoprotein (GP) with full-length glycoproteins from two strains of Ebola, Mayinga and Sudan Gulu, and Lassa virus.
The Chinese scientists did not indicate the provenance of the Ebola strains. The NML in Winnipeg had shipped such Ebola strains to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in March 2019.
The list of Ebola strains the Canadian lab sent to China includes Mayinga, Sudan Gulu, GP-Ebov, and GP-Sudan. “GP-Ebov” likely stands for glycoprotein Ebola virus, while “GP-Sudan” likely stands for glycoprotein Sudan, both used to create the Ebola surrogate virus.
Dr. Ebright says the glycoprotein is the “protein that determines the species selectivity of infection by Ebola virus, the efficiency of infection by Ebola virus, and the susceptibility to immune response of Ebola virus.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Yan Feihu for comment on the provenance of the strains used in the new study with but didn’t hear back. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which oversees the Winnipeg lab, also didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Winnipeg Lab
Yan Feihu previously worked at the NML in Winnipeg while being affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Science.
Mr. Yan collaborated on research with former NML scientist Ms. Qiu, who was fired from the lab along with her husband Mr. Cheng in January 2021 after security investigations.
Ms. Qiu and Mr. Cheng were involved in multiple local security breaches and had undisclosed ties to Chinese regime entities, according to Canadian government documents released in February. The release came after years of wrangling between opposition parties and the government.
While PHAC had known of security issues with Ms. Qiu and Mr. Cheng since at least August 2018, it nevertheless authorized the shipment of Ebola and Nipah strains to China.
Ms. Qiu facilitated the shipment of Ebola and Nipah virus strains to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). The Wuhan BSL-4 lab didn’t have the deadly pathogens in its possession at the time and requested them from the NML.
The documents show Ms. Qiu helped the WIV build its lethal pathogens programs before it obtained its top safety BSL-4 certification. Once it obtained certification, Ms. Qiu promptly facilitated the shipment of the deadly viruses to the WIV.
Around the same time the viruses were shipped in the spring of 2019, government records show Ms. Qiu was put in charge of “Overall Planning” for a WIV project involving the use of reverse genetics to create synthetic virus strains.
“This was to assess cross-species infection and pathogenic risks of bat filoviruses for future vaccine development purposes, which suggests that gain-of-function (GOF) studies were possibly to take place,” said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in a June 2020 document. GOF is the process of making viruses more deadly or transmissible.
A few months later, Wuhan became the epicentre of the pandemic with the spread of a bat coronavirus. Bat coronaviruses have been studied extensively in Wuhan labs.