Despite statements from the science team investigating the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in China claiming it was “unlikely” that a leak from a lab in Wuhan was responsible, the U.S. government remains unconvinced and continues to investigate the possibility.
This is a direct result of a lack of faith in both Chinese and WHO officials, who concluded after only a few weeks of investigation that there was no leak from a Chinese lab.
The Biden administration has faulted Chinese officials in the last few days for dragging their feet in allowing a WHO team into the country and impeding their investigation. China is also apparently withholding crucial data and the U.S. wants China to be more forthcoming and transparent.
Good luck with that, guys.
WHO investigators, after visiting three labs in Wuhan, said last week they found no signs that a lab accident could have caused the outbreak. One WHO researcher told reporters at a news conference the organization was halting any further inquiry into that theory.
But the director general of the WHO appeared to walk back that definitive statement a few days later, saying that “all hypotheses remain open and require further analysis and study.”
U.S. and other Western intelligence agencies are suspicious of some behind-the-scenes actions by the Chinese government in the early days of the pandemic that suggest something was amiss at the lab in Wuhan.
A Western intelligence official who has seen classified material told NBC News the U.S. has substantial intelligence that has not been made public about actions the Chinese government took — related to the Wuhan lab and other issues — that were designed to obscure the origins of Covid-19 and conceal its early impact. A former U.S. official who has also seen the intelligence agreed that it was significant, if inconclusive.
Both sources said the material, which they did not detail, did not add up to evidence that a lab accident occurred. But they said it raised enough circumstantial questions that analysts have been unable to rule out the lab scenario. U.S. intelligence officials declined to comment.
“There is no doubt that, especially when Covid-19 first hit but even today, China is falling far short of the mark when it comes to providing the information necessary to the international community,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell this month. “All of the — that lack of transparency, that lack of being forthcoming, is a profound problem and it’s one that continues.”
Indeed, China won’t play ball because, well, who’s going to make them? This pandemic has emboldened China, giving them self-confidence that even 10 years ago was missing. They have become America’s equal in economic terms and are gaining in global influence and military power.
It’s not surprising that they would throw their weight around in trying to suppress the truth about the origins of the virus. As they gain self-confidence, their arrogance grows.
I doubt they will ever voluntarily own up to what really happened at that lab in Wuhan.
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