U.S. intelligence has “increasing confidence” that the novel Wuhan coronavirus outbreak began in a lab that was researching bat-coronaviruses, contrary to China’s claim that the pandemic emerged from a Wuhan wet market, according to multiple sources that briefed Fox News.
The sources told Fox News that the initial transmission of the virus looks to be bat-to-human, and that “patient zero” contracted the disease while working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, before going into the general population. While the lab is China’s first to achieve the highest level of international bio-research safety, known as BSL-4, its work with bats had been conducted at the lower protection level of BSL-2.
President Trump did not deny the bombshell when asked about details during Wednesday’s coronavirus press conference.
“More and more we’re hearing the story . . . we are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation,” he stated.
Sources also confirmed that China used the wet market theory, which was parroted by the World Health Organization, to disguise and deflect exploration into the origins of the virus. The Chinese Communist Party has restricted research into the pandemic’s origins, while documents obtained by The Washington Post this week show that in 2018, U.S. officials warned the lab’s work with bats and “shortage” of safety protocols could lead to a “future emerging coronavirus outbreak.”
National Review has also detailed how job postings from November and December show the Wuhan Institute of Virology confirming “the origin of bats of major new human and livestock infectious diseases” with new research.
Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) first warned that the origins of the coronavirus were unknown, citing a Chinese study which found that the first documented coronavirus case in Wuhan had no connection to the market, but was vilified by U.S. media outlets for suggesting the virus could have come from the lab.
Democrats have been largely dismissive of claims of Chinese duplicity, instead focusing criticism on the Trump administration’s response. “The reason that we are in the crisis that we are today is not because of anything that China did, not because of anything the WHO did, it’s because of what this president did,” Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) said Tuesday.
While President Trump has praised China publicly for its response, saying on March 27 that he was “working closely together” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, officials explained to Fox News that the comments were diplomatic in nature and aimed at making Beijing “feel good” while U.S. investigations were ongoing.
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Defense Secretary Mark Esper took a cautious line on the theory that the coronavirus was released from a Wuhan virology lab, after the Trump administration confirmed that it was investigating that possibility.
Esper said that "a majority of the views right now is that it is natural, it is organic," in an interview on NBC's Today show on Thursday night. His comments echoed Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who said in a Tuesday press briefing that evidence otherwise is "inconclusive," according to Politico.
The comments came after it emerged on Tuesday that scientific diplomats who visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology numerous times in 2018 had sent two warnings back to the US government alleging poor safety practices .
The lab had been studying novel coronaviruses and their possible transfer between bats and humans.
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After this, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that the government was investigating the possibility the lab accidentally released the virus. China denies this.
It, and most scientists, favour the theory that the virus emerged in bats and was transmitted to humans in one of the city's wet markets, as Business Insider's Aylin Woodward reported.
Speaking to NBC on Thursday, Esper said it was hard to trust the Chinese state on this matter. "We do know one thing: If the Chinese government, the party, had been more transparent earlier, it would have helped us in terms of staying ahead of this virus ... To this day, they need to be far more forthright than what they've been."
On Wednesday, it emerged that the Chinese state had learned in mid-January that the virus could spread between humans, but sat on the information for six days. At the same time it said that it did not believe human-to-human transmission was possible.
On NBC Esper, like Milley, did not fuel further speculation about the origins of the virus, saying the Pentagon had been "looking closely" at it but that he couldn't comment much on intelligence matters.
He said: "The results are inconclusive ... a majority of the views right now is that it is natural, that it is organic.
"I think we need to continue to work this, and once we get beyond the pandemic we'll have a chance to look back and really find out what happened."
Read the original article on Business Insider
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