FBI warned of concerns over ‘biosecurity risk’ from Chinese scientists’ research in the US after intercepting Sars virus and flu samples illicitly carried in their luggage a year before coronavirus outbreak

FBI warned of concerns over ‘biosecurity risk’ from Chinese scientists’ research in the US after intercepting Sars virus and flu samples illicitly carried in their luggage a year before coronavirus outbreak 

The FBI warned of concerns over a ‘biosecurity risk’ from Chinese scientists’ research in the US after they intercepted virus samples carried in luggage a year before the coronavirus outbreak. 

In November 2018 – just over a year before the first coronavirus case was recorded in Wuhan – US customs at Detroit Metro Airport stopped a Chinese biologist with three samples labeled ‘Antibodies’ in his luggage. 

He told border control that someone he worked with in China had asked him to deliver the vials to a researcher at a US institute. 

After examining the writing on the vials, customs agents concluded that they believed the materials inside may have been MERS or SARS materials.