Blog by best-selling author Olga Swan

Soon after I started work at the University of Birmingham in 1978, an emergency erupted. A medical photographer working at the medical school up the hill from my office died tragically due to the accidental release of a dangerous smallpox virus grown in a research lab on the floor below where the medical photographer worked. Eventually it was concluded that the unfortunate worker contracted the virus via a poorly-maintained service duct between the two floors. Since then, the findings have been much contested. Fast forward to today’s much more lethal Coronavirus, in terms of its global death rate. Could it be that a similar accidental release of the Covid-19 virus occurred in the Wuhan virology lab in much the same way as the one which happened in Birmingham in 1978?  I have no proof, of course; it’s merely speculation. But, just as arguments still continue behind locked doors over the smallpox tragedy, so I suspect we may never know for sure with the current crisis. As I’m currently classed as an at-risk over-70, I now read with dismay that I may be forced to continue the lockdown for “another year” or until a vaccine is available. Oh well better stock up on more loo paper....