U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his government is trying
to determine whether the coronavirus emanated from a lab in Wuhan, China, and
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Beijing “needs to come clean” on what they
know.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 15, 2020. |
The source of the virus remains a
mystery. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on
Tuesday that U.S. intelligence indicates that the coronavirus likely occurred
naturally, as opposed to being created in a laboratory in China, but there is
no certainty either way.
Fox News reported on Wednesday that
the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory not as a bioweapon, but as part
of China’s effort to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat
viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States.
This report and others have suggested
the Wuhan lab where virology experiments take place and lax safety standards
there led to someone getting infected and appearing at a nearby “wet” market,
where the virus began to spread.
At a White House news conference
Trump was asked about the reports of the virus escaping from the Wuhan lab, and
he said he was aware of them.
“We are doing a very thorough
examination of this horrible situation that happened,” he said.
Asked if he had raised the subject in
his conversations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump said: “I don’t want
to discuss what I talked to him about the laboratory, I just don’t want to
discuss, and it’s inappropriate right now.”
Trump has sought to stress strong
U.S. ties with China during the pandemic as the United States has relied on
China for personal protection equipment desperately needed by American medical
workers.
As far back as February, the Chinese
state-backed Wuhan Institute of Virology dismissed rumors that the virus may
have been artificially synthesized at one of its laboratories or perhaps
escaped from such a facility.
Pompeo, in a Fox News Channel
interview after Trump’s news conference, said “we know this virus originated in
Wuhan, China,” and that the Institute of Virology is only a handful of miles
away from the wet market.
“We really need the Chinese
government to open up” and help explain “exactly how this virus spread,” said
Pompeo.
“The Chinese government needs to come
clean,” he said.
The broad scientific consensus holds
that SARS-CoV-2, the virus’ official name, originated in bats.
Trump and other officials have
expressed deep skepticism of China’s officially declared death toll from the
virus of around 3,000 people, when the United States has a death toll of more
than 20,000 and rising.
He returned to the subject on
Wednesday, saying the United States has more cases “because we do more
reporting.”
“Do you really believe those numbers
in this vast country called China, and that they have a certain number of cases
and a certain number of deaths; does anybody really believe that?” he said. -
Reuters
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