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What Really Happened In Wuhan: A Virus Like No Other, Countless Infections, Millions of Deaths Kindle Edition

4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,523 ratings

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Walkley Award-winning journalist, Sharri Markson is the Investigations Editor at The Australian and host of prime-time show Sharri on Sky News Australia.


The origins of Covid-19 are shrouded in mystery. Scientists and government officials insisted, for a year and a half, that the virus had a natural origin, ridiculing anyone who dared contradict this view. Tech giants swept the internet, censoring and silencing debate in the most extreme fashion. Yet it is undeniable that a secretive facility in Wuhan was immersed in genetically manipulating bat-coronaviruses in perilous experiments. And as soon as the news of an outbreak in Wuhan leaked, the Chinese military took control and gagged all laboratory insiders.

Part-thriller, part-expose, What Really Happened in Wuhan is a ground-breaking investigation from leading journalist Sharri Markson into the origins of Covid-19, the cover-ups, the conspiracies and the classified research. It features never-before-seen primary documents exposing China's concealment of the virus, fresh interviews with whistleblower doctors in Wuhan and crucial eyewitness accounts that dismantle what we thought we knew about when the outbreak hit.

With unprecedented access to Washington insiders, Markson takes you inside the White House, with senior Trump lieutenants revealing first-hand accounts of fiery Oval Office clashes and new stories of compromised government advisors and censored scientists.

Bravely reported and chillingly laid out, Markson brings to light the stories of the pandemic from the people on the ground: the scientists and national security officials who raised uncomfortable truths and were labelled conspiracy theorists, until government agencies began to suspect they might have been right all along. These brave individuals persisted through bruising battles and played a crucial role in investigating the origins of Covid-19 to finally, in this book, bring us closer to the truth of what really happened in Wuhan.

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What Really Happened In Wuhan Sharri Markson A groundbreaking investigation

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sharri Markson is the Investigations Writer at The Australian and host of "Sharri" on Sky News Australia. She is a two-time Walkley Award winner, the recipient of the 2018 Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence in Journalism, the winner of the 2020 News Award for Investigative Journalism, a winner of four Kennedy Awards - for Journalist of the Year, Political Journalist of the Year, Columnist of the Year and Scoop of the Year - and joint winner of the 2019 Press Gallery Political Journalist of the Year award. Sharri was previously The Daily Telegraph's National Political Editor, The Australian's Media Editor, CLEO magazine editor, News Editor at Seven News and Chief of Staff and political reporter at The Sunday Telegraph.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B094GHJK9L
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins (October 1, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 1, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 14179 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 517 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,523 ratings

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Sharri Markson
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Sharri Markson is the Investigations Writer at The Australian and host of "Sharri" on Sky News Australia. She is a two-time Walkley Award winner, the recipient of the 2018 Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence in Journalism, the winner of the 2020 News Award for Investigative Journalism, a winner of four Kennedy Awards – for Journalist of the Year, Political Journalist of the Year, Columnist of the Year and Scoop of the Year – and joint winner of the 2019 Press Gallery Political Journalist of the Year. Sharri was previously The Daily Telegraph’s National Political Editor, The Australian’s Media Editor, CLEO magazine editor, News Editor at Seven News and Chief of Staff and political reporter at The Sunday Telegraph.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
1,523 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2024
There is not much more I can say that hasn't already been said by countless reviewers here. I bought it when it came out, adding to my collection of nearly 5000 books already, and judged it to be a masterpiece in investigative journalism. To be clear, this author is no ranting political cheerleader, and you will find no partisan bias preached in its pages. There were some COVID-19 books before this, and a bunch afterward, but if buy only one book on this subject, this is the one. It's a slam dunk.

It is extremely thorough, very well documented and referenced, and is chocked full of authority on the subject matter. Everything that has happened since this book was published only validates what the book already uncovered. Well done!
5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2022
This book had a surprising wealth of detailed information on what was going on, not only in the Wuhan virology lab, but also among specialists in the U.S. It is well written and the science presented here is properly presented (I am a biologist). The author is careful to present contrary views and interpretations, so that it is not a one-sided depiction of the interpretation that the virus causing Covid-19 not only leaked from a lab, but was not simply a virus collected from nature that leaked, but one that had undergone modification. The commonly referenced "gain of function" research may have been involved, but there were other research methods that may have been used that, in essence, accomplished the same thing. I had originally accepted Fauci's stated interpretation that the virus arose by "natural" transmission from animal to human, and China's implied depiction of the virus being transmitted via a "wet market." Over the past two years, I have acquired information that counters those views. Someone sent to me early in the epidemic a Chinese paper pointing to a lab leak and I responded that this was unlikely. No evidence has arisen to contradict that report. This book is worth reading.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2023
This is the book that will tell you what was happening in Wuhan immediately before and during the loosing of the pandemic. Ms. Markson's research is detailed and persuasive. You will learn about the substandard safety conditions of Chinese government labs, the fact that "research" labs were under control of the PLA bioweapons experts, and about the persecution of brave Chinese journalists and researchers who tried to get the truth out. You will lose a lot of faith in your own (US) government when you see how much taxpayer money was going into Chinese gain of function and otherwise risky research under the control of those PLA bioweapons experts, and how the change of administration disrupted the efforts to determine the sources of the pandemic. You will be saddened by how most--but not all--Western scientists had financial and friendship interests in keeping the pangolin/bat theory of transmission alive long after it should have been dismissed, and engaged in behavior completely antithetical to norms of scientific inquiry. As a non-scientist, I found the straightforward description of how the gain of function research resulted in a deadly virus very helpful. From the calmer vantage point of early 2023, the final conclusion that it was most likely a lab spill rather than a deliberate leak (let alone a transmission from animals) plausible, and given the number of bad actors operating here, quite restrained. There's plenty here that could feed any number of conspiracy theories, but Ms. Markson doesn't go there. Right now, there's no better book on the origins of the pandemic and its misuse.
6 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022
This is a superbly researched and written book. If anyone has a serious doubt about the Chinese cover-up of the covid virus outbreak, this book is a must read. There are so many "villains" in this story that it would be difficult to decide where to begin. Certainly they begin with the Chinese themselves -- the scientists, the Peoples Liberation Army and the Communist leadership. But there are also may Americans who were cooperating with or writing on behalf or in favor of the Wuhan Institute of Virology -- The NIH (think Fauci and Collins), numerous government and university labs, the liberal news media, and more. Also don't forget the World Health Organization. It is amazing how these very people and agencies who were yelling conspiracy at anyone who suggested anything but a natural source of the virus were, in fact, creating the greatest conspiracy of all in helping the Chinese in their massive cover up.
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2022
Like a Tom Clancy novel, this book is riveting and hard to put down. It did a lot to convince me that Covid-19 originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and not from some bats or pangolins at a Chinese market. Each of the 26 chapters starts off fresh with different settings and characters which helps to keep the action moving. However, at nearly 500 pages, it can get booged down in some chapters – especially those involving competing scientists’ positions and the world of scientific publishing, which are long and read like a compilation of annotated bibliographies. Despite its gripping narrative flow, Markson does the take time to dive into some very detailed areas of Covid research, including the human ACE2 binding ability of the Covid spike protein, its unique furin cleavage site, and the discrepancies in the WIV data repositories and virus specimens BtCov/4991 and RaTG13. On the political side of things, Markson sets the stage by embracing the cause of Chinese dissidents, becomes smitten with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Covid team, and takes some shots at Anthony Fauci – each of which would properly involve another book. She pretty much gives Trump a pass, but does suggest that his early distractions with the Chinese trade deal and the impeachment hearings did not help things at a crucial time when the pandemic was beginning. For me, as an academic, the biggest issue the book sheds light on is the risk of international collaboration of naïve scientists who work around the globe on sensitive research in pursuit of mutual personal interests - publishing papers, trips to conferences, and recognition. But that may speak more to “why” these things happened in Wuhan.
10 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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JLG
5.0 out of 5 stars A real eye-opener. Communism at its worst!
Reviewed in Canada on November 21, 2021
Great read, and thanks to the author for exposing the evils of communism...

After reading this book, it reminded me of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 where communist Russia just denied, denied, and denied there was a problem until the rest of the free world exposed irrefutable evidence. Only then, did they come (ahem) clean. In the meantime, neighboring countries were exposed to huge amounts of radioactive waste in their atmosphere.

Which now brings us to another communist country - China. They too, have denied, denied and denied ad nauseum the existence of COVID19. In fact, the original scientist that first blew the whistle on it (never a good thing to do in China). He died from COVID. We now all know that COVID-19 originated in China. The evidence is irrefutable.

Folks, communism is all about lying, subterfuge, deceit, domination and dictatorship.

This book is a must read.
11 people found this helpful
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Dragonfly
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating, eye-opening, and superbly researched account. A riveting read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2021
The extent of the initial cover-ups that occurred world-wide, within the WHO, U.S. intelligence, the western media as well as, of course, by the Chinese Communist Party, is astounding. Well done to all those virologists, researchers and investigators who persevered in their search for the truth. The whole world needs to know the facts recorded in this book, particularly about the research carried out by the People's Liberation Army on biological weapons and the multiple deceits perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party and its researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Truly shocking. I personally would like to thank and praise the numerous Chinese citizens who tried to record and spread news of what was happening in Wuhan but who were brutally suppressed and 'disappeared' by the CCP authorities.

It's worth noting that, yes, Ms Markson isn't a scientist - she's an investigative reporter - and she made an error in referring to the Tuberculosis bacillus as a virus, it's not of course; however, that slip-up does not detract from the excellent, thorough and compelling research throughout the book.
4 people found this helpful
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Martin Bremer
5.0 out of 5 stars Hier erfährt man, warum man so wenig erfährt.
Reviewed in Germany on December 15, 2021
Auch wenn die Autorin die menschliche Seite der Dissidenten ausführlich schildert, so ist das Buch dennoch eine detaillierte Abrechnung mit den Mechanismen, die weltweit die Aufklärung von Herkunft, Struktur und Wirkung des Corona Virus behindert haben. Es ist zu einen ein Sachbuch über Corona Viren und zum anderen eine Studie über die verschlungenen Wege der Meinungsbildung in amerikanischen Ministerien. Man lernt einiges über die Verflechtungen amerikanischer und chinesischer Forschung und auch deren persönliche Seite. Sowohl "Batwoman" Shi Zhengli als auch die Autorin Sharri Markson erweisen sich als außerordentlich beeindruckende Personen.
Andrea
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read - the truth is out there.
Reviewed in Australia on March 1, 2024
Terrifying read but one you should undertake. It isn’t an easy book to delve into though it’s written in an easy to understand way. Sometimes the kernels of truth come out early but get swept under the rug or labelled ‘conspiracy’, this is one of those times.

To quote the Why Files theme song: “Another conspiracy theory becomes the truth, my friends, and it never ends.”
Amazon カスタマー
5.0 out of 5 stars great and valuable to read carefully
Reviewed in Japan on February 7, 2022
It was very informative and interesting.
Strongly recommend.

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