China's "Bat Woman" warns Coronavirus is just tip of the iceberg

Shi Zhengli, a virologist renowned for her work on coronavirus in bats, said in an interview on Chinese state television that viruses being discovered now are "just the tip of the iceberg" and called for international cooperation in the fight against epidemics.

Known as China's "bat woman," the deputy director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology said research into viruses needs scientists and governments to be transparent and cooperative, and that it is "very regrettable" when science is politicized.

If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next infectious disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early warnings," Shi told CGTN. "If we don't study them there will possibly be another outbreak."

China has rejected the accusations. Shi has said that the genetic characteristics of the viruses she's worked with didn't match those of the coronavirus spreading in humans.

In a social media post, she wrote she would "swear on my life" the pandemic had nothing to do with her lab. In another interview with CGTN over the weekend, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wang Yanyi, said the idea that the virus escaped from the lab was "pure fabrication."

The outbreak has infected more than 5.4 million people worldwide and killed over 345,000.

Many countries around the world are looking at the Chinese lab in Wuhan with suspicion. Pompeo, from the United States, said there was evidence that the corona virus had spread from the China lab. But China and the Wuhan Institute of Virology have denied the allegations.