Ben Hu had been getting money from USAID since 2014 doing bat coronavirus Sars COV research. Including infecting transgenic mice with humanized ACE-2 receptors. So obviously some people have heard about it back then.



The way I know Reuters was getting paid to spread large scale social deception is because it is line item billed in the report I linked above. It's what is written on the receipt as a description of the purpose of the transaction.