[Denver]

China is accused of hiding the findings of a coronavirus expert - known as "Bat Woman" - after she quickly identified the genetic make-up of the new strain that has infected millions.

Wuhan-based virologist Shi Zhengli is one of the world's top researchers on coronaviruses and has discovered dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves.

She studied samples taken from some of the first people to become infected with the new and then-mysterious respiratory illness in China in December and found it was similar to SARS.

It was identified as a novel coronavirus and within three days she completed its gene sequencing, finding that it was 96 per cent identical to a virus found in horseshoe bats in Yunnan.

But she was "muzzled" and her team was ordered not to reveal any information about the new disease, which was already spreading rapidly as China kept the world in the dark.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-...woman-21853459