Danielle Anderson, an expert in bat-borne viruses, the only foreign scientist to do research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology‘s BSL-4 lab, was working in the Wuhan lab just weeks before the first known cases of COVID-19 emerged in central China and she still ponders on what she missed, Bloomberg reported. This lab is the first in mainland China equipped to handle the planet’s deadliest pathogens.

Her stint at the Wuhan lab not only makes her the first foreign scientist to speak on it but also gives this case an insider’s perspective.

Also read: Why scientists are concerned about leaks at biolabs

Since the outbreak of the virus, China’s lack of transparency has raised questions and a team was formed by the WHO to go in person and find out the origin of the outbreak.

The US has for long questioned the lab’s safety and alleged its scientists were engaged in a contentious gain of function.

Danielle, in an interview with Bloomberg, said half-truths and distorted information have obscured an accurate accounting of the lab’s functions and activities.

“It’s not that it was boring, but it was a regular lab that worked in the same way as any other high-containment lab. What people are saying is just not how it is,” Bloomberg quoted Danielle as saying.

Danielle said she was impressed with the lab’s maximum biocontainment lab and how things functioned. Strict protocols and requirements were adhered to and in order to work independently in the lab, researchers undergo 45 hours of extensive training.

The scientist said no one she knew at the Wuhan institute was ill toward the end of 2019 when the virus outbreak reportedly happened.

“If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick-and I wasn’t. I was tested for coronavirus in Singapore before I was vaccinated, and had never had it,” Danielle told Bloomberg.

Talking about the spread of the virus, Danielle said: “There was no chatter. Scientists are gossipy and excited. There was nothing strange from my point of view going on at that point that would make you think something is going on here.”

The Chinese government has repeatedly denied that anyone from the facility contracted the virus.

According to Danielle, it is impossible for the virus to spill from the lab. “I’m not naïve enough to say I absolutely write this off,” Bloomberg quoted her as saying. 

Anderson further added that she’s not surprised that the WHO-appointed team hasn’t found the ‘smoking gun’ bat responsible for the latest outbreak yet.

Also read: CDC’s ex-director believes coronavirus ‘escaped’ from Wuhan lab

As per the report, Anderson is of the opinion that no virus was made intentionally to infect people.