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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – Photo: REUTERS
“There is tremendous evidence that this is where the virus originated,” Pompeo said on ABC’s “This Week” from May 3-5.
The United States Secretary of State continues to criticize the way China handles the emerging pandemic, something he has done many times before. Pompeo, however, declined to respond when asked if the virus that escaped into the environment was unintentional or intentional.
Pompeo, a former director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said he agreed with a report by the United States intelligence community, saying that “with broad scientific consensus, the coronavirus not man-made or genetically modified. “
This is not the first time the United States has accused the new strain of the coronavirus of an acute pandemic respiratory infection (COVID-19) originating in China. However, Australia, an ally of the United States, said there is nothing credible to prove this.
On April 30, President Donald Trump emphasized that there was evidence that the virus was related to the Wuhan laboratory and threatened to impose Chinese tariffs in retaliation.
“The president’s point is clear: The United States will hold people accountable in this case,” Pompeo said.
China has repeatedly denied that the coronavirus originated in the Wuhan laboratory, but refused to investigate and inspect this facility.
China’s state Global Television Network (CGTN) on May 3 also cited Professor Jonna Mazet, an epidemiologist at the University of California, to counter the US charge.
According to CGTN, Ms. Mazet used to work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and confirmed that corona virus from this unit’s laboratories “is very likely to be impossible.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry previously argued that conducting an international investigation and suspected it would be an insult to the sacrifices of the Chinese people during the pandemic.
China has quietly conducted national investigations into the origin of the corona virus. However, Beijing rejected requests to participate from the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the WHO representative in China.
