BEIJING — For the second day in a row, China on Wednesday dismissed U.S. ideas that the COVID-19 pandemic could have been triggered by a virus that leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
Responding to feedback by FBI Director Christopher Wray, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning stated the involvement of the U.S. intelligence group was proof sufficient of the “politicization of origin tracing.”
“By rehashing the lab-leak theory, the U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility,” Mao stated.
“We urge the U.S. to respect science and facts … stop turning origin tracing into something about politics and intelligence, and stop disrupting social solidarity and origins cooperation,” she stated.
In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, Wray stated, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in (central China’s) Wuhan.”
“Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab,” Wray stated.
Referring to efforts to hint the origin of the coronavirus, he added, “I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And that’s unfortunate for everybody.”
On Tuesday, Mao pushed again at a report from the U.S. Department of Energy that assessed with “low confidence” that the virus that was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 leaked from a close-by authorities laboratory.
The report hasn’t been made public and officers in Washington confused that U.S. businesses usually are not in settlement on the origin of the virus.
Mao on Tuesday insisted that China has been “open and transparent” within the seek for the virus’ origins and has “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research.”
A World Health Organization knowledgeable group stated final 12 months that “key pieces of data” to elucidate how the pandemic started have been nonetheless lacking. The scientists cited avenues of analysis that have been wanted, together with research evaluating the position of untamed animals and environmental research in locations the place the virus might need first unfold.
The Associated Press has beforehand reported that the Chinese authorities was strictly controlling analysis into the origin of the pandemic that has killed greater than 6.8 million individuals worldwide, clamping down on some work and selling fringe theories that it might have come from exterior the nation.
Some scientists are open to the lab-leak concept, however many scientists consider the virus got here from animals, mutated, and jumped to individuals, as has occurred with different viruses up to now. Experts say the origin of the pandemic might not be identified for a few years — if ever.
FROM ARCHIVES: First time the time period “Spanish Flu” appeared within the Herald:
Herald Sept., 30, 1918 Page 1
Herald Sept. 30, 1918 Page 8
Source: www.bostonherald.com”