Former scientist from Wuhan claims COVID-19 was lab engineered

USA: A US-based scientist, Andrew Huff, who previously worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) has said that COVID-19 was "a man-made virus" that leaked from the laboratory. In his latest book, "The Truth About Wuhan", he mentions that the pandemic occurred due to the US government's, specifically the National Institute of Health (NIH), funding for studying several coronaviruses in China. Excerpts of his book have been published in the UK-based tabloid, The Sun.
 

Moreover, he blamed the US authorities for "the biggest US intelligence failure since 9/11". Huff wrote in his book that the "foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

Huff is also the former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based non-profit organization that studies infectious diseases. According to him, the organization had been helping the Wuhan laboratory for many years in contracting the "best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species". He further elaborated that, “China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent". He told The Sun, “I was terrified by what I saw," and that, “we were just handing them bioweapon technology.”

The Wuhan laboratory has been a topic of global debate for the last two years in association with the origins of coronavirus. An investigation published by Vanity Fair has reported that WIV has China's riskiest coronavirus research. The ruling Chinese Communist Party has also put pressure on the facility to come up with scientific breakthroughs to raise its global standing. However, officials from the lab and the Chinese government have continuously denied allegations of the virus originating in the facility, calling them "baseless".