Shi Zhengli, one of the world's leading bat coronavirus researchers, trains staff at Wuhan Institute of Virology on how to safely work in their new biosafety level 4 laboratory in 2017. /Getty Image 而这些阴谋论也让武汉病毒研究所专门研究蝙蝠冠状病毒的专家——石正丽陷入舆论风波。 When the novel coronavirus hit, virologists were at the forefront of unraveling the mysteries of the virus and guide a scientific fight against it. However, one was thrust into the spotlight, not because of her work achievement, but because what she does – studying bat coronaviruses – has made her lab a target of conspiracy theories. Her name is Shi Zhengli, a Chinese virologist at Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), who has been studying viruses over the past 15 years and identified dozens of deadly SARS-like viruses in bat caves. A conspiracy theory widely promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump is that the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 escaped from her lab. An even more absurd speculation is the virus was engineered in a lab, which has been refuted and condemned by scientists worldwide. 7月15日，石正丽以电子邮件的形式接受了世界知名学术期刊《科学》杂志的采访，回答了有关病毒起源、研究成果的一些提问。 采访中，石正丽驳斥了特朗普 “新冠病毒是从武汉病毒研究所实验室泄漏”的说法。 “特朗普的说法危害并影响了我们的学术工作和个人生活。他欠我们一个道歉。” For the first time, Science magazine has spoken to Shi and asked her about the origin of the virus and her research. She emailed them answers to all the queries on July 15. "U.S. President Trump's claim that SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from our institute totally contradicts the facts," Shi said. "It jeopardizes and affects our academic work and personal life. He owes us an apology." 关于“实验室泄漏病毒”的反驳Major facts provided by Shi
Screenshot from the website of Science 石正丽在邮件中提到她的研究团队在2019年12月30日首次收到新冠病毒的临床样本，当时称为不明原因的肺炎样本。在此之前，她从未接触或研究过这种病毒，也不知道它的存在。随后，石正丽的团队与国内其他机构一起展开了研究，并迅速鉴定出病原体。 Samples from patients who had a pneumonia of unknown causes were sent to her institute for test on December 30, 2019. "Before that, we had never been in contact with or studied this virus, nor did we know of its existence," Shi wrote. "Subsequently, we rapidly conducted research in parallel with other domestic institutions, and quickly identified the pathogen," she wrote. 石正丽还指出，新冠病毒与武汉病毒研究所实验室里其他已知的病毒样本没有任何相似性。 最近，也有一些关于病毒起源的揣测将“矛头”指向了一种蝙蝠冠状病毒——RaTG13，因为这一病毒与新冠病毒高度相似。石正丽指出两种病毒基因组序列的差异显示它们可能是在20到70年前从同一祖先分化而来。石正丽表示她的实验室从未培育过RaTG13，因而也不存在“实验室泄漏事故”导致新冠病毒暴发的可能性。 WIV has identified hundreds of bat viruses over the years, but nothing close to SARS-CoV-2, she said. Recently, much speculation has centered on RaTG13, a bat virus that most closely resembles SARS-CoV-2. However, differences in the sequences of the two viruses suggest they diverged from a common ancestor somewhere between 20 and 70 years ago. Besides, her lab never cultured RaTG13, making an accident far less likely, she noted. 她还提到实验室内工作人员的研究都严格按照国际和国家对生物安全实验室的管理要求进行；实验室各种设施也定期由政府授权的第三方机构进行安全监测；实验室也未发生人员感染病毒事故。 Their research meets strict biosafety rules, she said, and the lab is subject to periodic inspections "by a third-party institution authorized by the government." Antibody tests have shown that no members of the institute staff or students were infected with SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses. 关于病毒起源的相关研究Shi on virus origin 目前关于新冠病毒的起源尚不明确，石正丽基于自己的研究推测病毒可能起源于蝙蝠，由蝙蝠直接传播给人类或是经由中间宿主传播给人类。 Although unsure about the origin of the novel coronavirus, Shi believes it originated in bats and jumped to humans directly or via an intermediate host. 《科学》杂志指出，疫情初期一些确诊病例与武汉华南海鲜市场有关联。不过今年一月底的两项研究结果也显示，约有45%的早期确诊患者并没有华南海鲜市场暴露史。 石正丽对研究结果表示认同，并指出“华南海鲜市场可能只是一个发现了一批早期新冠肺炎患者的场所。” Many of the first identified COVID-19 cases had links to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. However, two studies released in late January showed that up to 45 percent of the first confirmed patients didn't have any ties to the market, said Science. "The Huanan Seafood Market may just be a crowded location where a cluster of early novel coronavirus patients were found," Shi agreed. 在邮件中，石正丽还提到她的团队和华中农业大学合作，采集了武汉附近以及湖北省内其他地方养殖场动物和家畜的样本，在这些样本中没有发现新冠病毒。 此外，石正丽指出并未在湖北省内的蝙蝠中发现与新冠病毒相似的冠状病毒，所以她认为新冠病毒从蝙蝠到人类的跨物种传播并不发生在湖北，而是发生在别的地方。 She wrote to Science that researchers from WIV and Huazhong Agricultural University didn't find the virus in samples from farmed animals and livestock taken around Wuhan and in other places in Hubei Province. The expert added that the bat coronavirus, which is similar to SARS-COV-2, has never been found in Hubei, leading her to believe that animal-to-human transmission occurred elsewhere. 国际同行的回应Reviews from international peers on Shi's responses 《科学》杂志刊登了石正丽的采访内容后也得到了其他国际知名专家的支持和认可。 美国乔治城大学传染病专家丹尼尔·卢西（Daniel Lucey）表示：“这里有很多我不知道的事实，直接听到她（石正丽）的解答令人振奋。” Shi's answers have also been shared by Science with several leading researchers in other countries. Daniel Lucey of Georgetown University, an epidemic specialist who blogs about SARS-CoV-2 origin issues, says it's a "big contribution." "There are a lot of new facts that I wasn't aware of. It's very exciting to hear this directly from her." 美国斯克里普斯研究所进化生物学家克里斯蒂安·安德森（Kristian Andersen）称赞石正丽及其团队的工作“严谨、真实、坚持科学原则。” "They're all logical, genuine, and stick to the science as one would have expected from a world-class scientist and one of the leading experts on coronaviruses," says evolutionary biologist Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research. 澳大利亚悉尼大学进化生物学家爱德华·霍尔姆斯（Edward Holmes）表示石正丽给出了“清晰、全面且可信的答案。” 与石正丽合作了15年的美国环保生态健康联盟疾病生态学家彼得·达什亚克（Peter Daszak）也对她的专业水准给予了高度评价。 Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney, says the answers are "a clear, comprehensive, and believable account" of what occurred at WIV. Shi is a researcher who "is extremely driven to produce high-quality work. She will go out in the field, and gets involved in the work, but her real skills are in the lab, and she's one of the best I've worked with in China, probably globally," said Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance, who has worked with Shi for more than 15 years.