White House Press Secretary Sachs said Monday (May 24) that the U.S. does not currently have enough information to draw conclusions about the origin of the new coronavirus. She said the U.S. has been calling for an independent international investigation into the origin of the virus. The Wall Street Journal said Sunday, based on a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report, that three researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virus Research reported the first case of New Crown in China a month before it became severely ill and sought medical treatment in a hospital. The report suggests the report could fuel growing calls for a fuller investigation into whether the new crown virus leaked from a laboratory.
Sharkey: Can’t confirm or deny reports, not enough information to draw conclusions
White House Press Secretary Chuck Sharkey responded to the Wall Street Journal’s “A U.S. report on the illness of a Wuhan virus institute researcher has fueled discussions about the traceability of the virus” when asked at a regular press conference on Monday: “We have no way to confirm or deny the report that specifically involves the hospitalization of some individuals. confirm or deny that.”
The Wall Street Journal on Sunday cited a U.S. intelligence report that said three researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital treatment in November 2019, a month before China reported its first case of neocrown pneumonia.
“That doesn’t mean we can draw conclusions,” Sharkey said.
“We don’t have enough information to draw a conclusion against the origin. There are a range of options that need to be looked at, we need data, and we need independent investigations. That’s what we’ve been calling for,” she said.
The spokeswoman said the Biden administration has been asking the World Health Organization for months to lead a more transparent international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We need that data, and we need that information from the Chinese government. What we can’t do, and what I would remind everyone to do, is to jump ahead of a truly international process. At this point in time, we don’t have enough data and information to draw conclusions,” she said.
NSC: All theories should be investigated by WHO and international experts
The NSC declined to comment on the intelligence, but said all technically plausible theories about the origin of the pandemic should be investigated by the World Health Organization and international experts.
“We still have serious questions about the initial stages of 2019 coronavirus disease, including its origins within the People’s Republic of China,” a spokeswoman for the NSC said.
“We will not be making any statements that prejudge the ongoing WHO research into the origin of the new coronavirus,” the spokeswoman said. “As a matter of policy, we never comment on intelligence issues.”
China responds to reports
Responding to reports that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research became unwell and received medical treatment in November 2019, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday that a joint China-WHO expert group agreed after a field visit and understanding in China that the hypothesis that a laboratory incident in China triggered the virus was extremely unlikely.
He went on to point the finger at the United States.
He said, “Reports of outbreaks and viruses emerging in multiple locations at multiple points as early as the second half of 2019 have become increasingly common, and the suspicions about the Fort Detrick biological site and the true purpose of the more than 200 biological laboratories the U.S. has opened around the world have generated a great deal of international attention. Is the U.S. concern for traceability, or is it trying to divert attention from the ‘lab leak’ theory? I hope the relevant U.S. authorities will clarify as soon as possible and give the world a satisfactory explanation,” the spokesman said.
The Chinese government has previously tried to signal that the new coronavirus originated in the United States or Europe, and diplomats such as Zhao Lijian have cited cyber conspiracy theories without evidence that the new coronavirus may have originated at the U.S. Army’s Fort Detrick.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that an abandoned mine was in the spotlight over the Wuhan lab leak, following the disclosure of intelligence reports that researchers at the Wuhan Institute for Virus Research had fallen ill and sought treatment.
The WSJ reported that the mine in Yunnan was “the closest thing on Earth to a subterranean home known to have caused the new coronavirus,” and sparked growing calls for a fuller investigation into whether the virus originated in the lab.
In April 2012, six miners at the mine contracted a mysterious illness after entering the mine to clean up bat guano, and three of them died.
Chinese scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research who investigated this identified several novel coronaviruses after taking samples from bats in the mine.
Now, unanswered questions about the miners’ illness, the viruses found in the mine and the research conducted on them have brought the idea that the new coronaviruses may have originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, once seen as a conspiracy theory, into mainstream scientific circles, the report said.
Calls for investigation of both animal and laboratory leak hypotheses
Following the World Health Organization’s report on virus tracing released in late March, a number of international scientists have publicly advocated for a more comprehensive and in-depth investigation into the origin of the virus, fully examining both the hypothesis that the virus was transmitted from animals to humans in nature and the hypothesis that the virus leaked from a laboratory, and calling on the Chinese government to allow an international independent investigation and provide more data.
The World Health Assembly, the policy-making body of the World Health Organization, meets Monday. The body is expected to discuss the next stage of the investigation into the traceability of the new coronavirus at the meeting.
Recent Comments