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The origin of the Covid-19 pandemic has become a source of dispute between the United States and China. Donald Trump said the United States government is investigating rumors about a Wuhan City virology institute.
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A study by authors from China itself, published in January in the scientific journal The Lancet, already questioned the Chinese government’s explanation of the origin of the infection. According to this explanation, the first patients would have been infected at a market in Wuhan.
The Americans’ line of research is that human transmission began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (known by the acronym WIV).
There, the coronaviruses that attack bats are studied. What the Americans are investigating is whether it was in that lab that a bat virus first infected a human – this was the patient who inadvertently took out Sars-Cov-2 and spread it.
This was the first laboratory in China to receive the highest security certification in 2015. However, a text published in the “Washington Post” this week states that US diplomats visited the laboratory in 2018 and were concerned about the weaknesses.
In January of that year, American diplomats and scientists visited WIV and then sent two diplomatic cables (reports) to the Washington government. The laboratory did not have adequate safety conditions, and the coronavirus studies were risky, they said.
Reports from these diplomats called for more attention to the matter and help in dealing with security problems in the WIV laboratory.
At the time, Americans who visited the facility said they were concerned about the lack of training for laboratory workers, according to a text published by the Washington Post.
/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2020/b/d/R7PSufQI2wFpzD65nrLg/ap20021348956758.jpg "Chinese government says coronavirus has begun infecting humans at this seafood market in Wuhan - Photo: Dake Kang / AP")
Chinese government says coronavirus has begun infecting humans at this seafood market in Wuhan – Photo: Dake Kang / AP
Investigations still inconclusive
Until now, investigations into this are inconclusive, said Gen. Mark Milley, chief of staff for the United States Armed Forces.
The origin of Sars-Cov-2 remains a mystery, but “the weight of the evidence” indicates that the new coronavirus is natural and was not created in a laboratory, it said Wednesday (16).
/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2020/u/O/daALBnQbei91FVinseZg/4014a20k-pb.jpg "The microscopy image shows Sars-Cov-2, the new coronavirus, infecting a cell: on the left, a lighter circular image shows a cell full of viruses, which multiplies inside it. - Photo: IOC / Fiocruz")
The microscopy image shows Sars-Cov-2, the new coronavirus, infecting a cell: on the left, a lighter circular image shows a cell full of viruses, which multiplies inside it. – Photo: IOC / Fiocruz
Research published in the scientific journal Nature concluded that Sars-Cov-2 was neither developed nor manipulated in the laboratory.
WIV principal investigator Shi Zhengli denies that human transmission started at the institute.
France also stated that there is no evidence of any link between the new coronavirus and the laboratory with the highest safety certification in existence.
A representative from the French presidential office said there was no objective evidence to back up the story.
