Suspicious Death of PLA Scientist Who Shipped Coronavirus Vials to Us Just Before Pandemic Hit

A PLA scientist who reportedly sent coronavirus samples to the US before the pandemic has died under suspicious circumstances, raising fresh questions about origins and secrecy. (Credit: By Truyền Hình Pháp Luật, CC BY 3.0/wikimedia commons)

Declassified US Senate documents have renewed scrutiny of a 2018 shipment of coronavirus-related research materials from a Chinese military-affiliated scientist to a US laboratory, though the records do not establish any connection between the shipment and the emergence of COVID-19.

The documents, including a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) field report dated June 2020, describe how three undeclared vials linked to Chinese researcher Zhou Yusen were intercepted at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport after being carried into the United States by a courier in November 2018.