One of the world's top epidemiologists admits he first heard about the pandemic outbreak in Wuhan more than two weeks before it was disclosed to global health bodies. The revelation by Ian Lipkin, a professor at Columbia University honoured by China for work on the first Sars epidemic earlier this century, undermines the official Beijing narrative on the origins. Prof Lipkin told a documentary by the director Spike Lee that he learned of 'the new outbreak' on December 15, even repeating the date for clarification. Yet China claims there were only five known patients before that time in Wuhan –…