Published January 27,2025
Subscribe
China on Monday dismissed the lab leak concept on COVID-19 origins proposed by the CIA, calling it baseless and emphasizing the necessity for scientific investigation, state media reported.
“The origin of coronavirus is a scientific issue and should be determined by scientists in a scientific spirit. The lab leak is highly unlikely,” stated Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning throughout a press briefing in Beijing.
Mao added: “This is an authoritative scientific conclusion reached by the joint expert team of China and the World Health Organization (WHO) on the basis of on-site visits to relevant labs in Wuhan and in-depth exchanges with relevant scientific researchers.”
The assertion got here after the CIA, in a brand new growth, backed the speculation that the COVID-19 pandemic might have originated from an unintended lab leak in Wuhan, somewhat than from pure transmission at a moist market.
The first circumstances of the virus had been reported in Wuhan, central China, in December 2019. It subsequently unfold worldwide, resulting in nationwide lockdowns and inflicting practically seven million deaths.
The CIA’s reassessment of the lab leak concept is reportedly based mostly on a better evaluation of present proof, together with situations at Wuhan’s high-security laboratories previous to the outbreak, somewhat than new intelligence.
However, Mao reiterated the findings of the China-WHO joint investigation, which concluded {that a} lab leak was “highly unlikely,” a willpower she stated has been “widely recognized by the international community and the scientific community.”
China has constantly rejected claims from Western nations suggesting a lab origin for the pandemic.
“The US should stop politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of the origin of coronavirus, stop smearing other countries and shifting blame,” Mao stated.
She urged Washington to “respond to the reasonable concerns of the international community as soon as possible, proactively share its own data on early suspected cases with the WHO, and clarify doubts about the US biological laboratory, so as to give a responsible explanation to the people of the world.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr