Covid-19 most likely from lab leak says FBI chief
FBI Director Christopher Wray has publicly acknowledged that the agency believes Covid-19 likely originated in a Chinese government-controlled lab.
In an interview with Fox News, he stated that the FBI had long suspected a lab incident as the cause of the pandemic.
China has consistently denied any connection between the virus and a lab leak.
Wray’s comments followed a call by the US ambassador to China for the country to be more transparent about the virus’s origins.
While some studies have pointed to the Wuhan seafood and wildlife market as the source of the virus, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a leading virus lab, is located only a short distance away. Other US government agencies have offered differing assessments of the pandemic’s origins.
The Chinese government has not yet responded to Wray’s remarks.
China dismisses claims – ‘stop smearing China’
Beijing alludes to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2021 investigation that said the lab leak theory was “extremely unlikely.”
“Certain parties should stop rehashing the ‘lab leak’ narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicising origins-tracing,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
The WHO investigation was deeply criticised and its director-general has since called for a new inquiry, saying: “All hypotheses remain open and require further study.”
US wants an investigation into origins of Covid
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby stated on Monday that US President Joe Biden backs a comprehensive government-led investigation to uncover the origins of Covid-19.
Kirby acknowledged that the US still lacks a clear consensus on what exactly occurred. He stated, “We’re just not there yet. If we have something that is ready to be briefed to the American people and the Congress, we will do that.”
In October 2021, a report released by the top US intelligence official revealed that four US intelligence agencies had assessed with “low confidence” that the virus had emerged from an infected animal or a related virus.
Chinese propagandists have propagated a conspiracy theory claiming that the virus was created and released from Fort Detrick in Maryland, a former US biological weapons program centre. Currently, Fort Detrick houses biomedical laboratories that research viruses such as Ebola and smallpox.
In the aftermath of the recent spy balloon controversy, tensions in US-China bilateral relations have heightened. On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers began a series of hearings on the “existential” threat of the Chinese Communist Party.
The first session of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party centred on issues such as human rights and the US economy’s reliance on Chinese manufacturing.
Why is it so hard to find out how Covid-19 began?
The exact origin of Covid-19 is still uncertain and is a matter of ongoing investigation by scientists and health experts worldwide. There are several reasons why it is challenging to determine how the virus started:
- Complexity of virus transmission: The virus’s ability to spread and mutate quickly makes it challenging to track its origin accurately. It can take time to identify the earliest cases and trace how the virus spread from person to person.
- Limited information from China: In the early stages of the pandemic, China was slow to release information about the virus, leading to concerns about transparency and information sharing. This delay in information sharing may have slowed the initial investigations into the virus’s origins.
- Need for scientific evidence: To determine the virus’s origin, scientists need to conduct extensive studies and analysis of virus samples, which takes time and resources. It is essential to have a rigorous, evidence-based approach to investigate the origin of the virus to avoid unsupported claims and misinformation.
- Political tensions: The search for the virus’s origin has become politically charged, leading to accusations and counter-accusations between countries. This tension can complicate efforts to share information and collaborate on investigations.