On Sunday, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo in an interview with ABC claimed that there is “enormous evidence” that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory, however, he did not provide any of the alleged evidence.
“Look, the simplest experts thus far seem to think it had been manmade. I have no reason to disbelieve that at now,” he said.
The US was looking into the likelihood the virus came from a lab in Wuhan, China.
over whether he was claiming the Sars-CoV-2 virus (which causes the Covid-19 disease) was deliberately engineered or escaped because of the results of a lab accident.
On being reminded that US intelligence in a formal statement said that the virus was not manmade or genetically modified, he replied, “That’s right. I agree with that.”
Hence, the secretary of state appeared confused.
Previously, Donald Trump said he had evidence of the pandemic beginning in a Chinese lab but was not permitted to share it.
Pompeo had also told on a radio: “We don’t know if it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We don’t know if it emanated from the wet market or yet another place. We don’t know those answers.”
Most scientists say that although it is possible that the outbreak started in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where coronaviruses were being studied, but it is a far more likely that it was transmitted naturally from bats.
Chinese authorities haven’t allowed foreign experts, including investigators from the planet Health Organization, to require part within the investigation into the origins of the virus. They have not even shared any samples taken from wild animals at the Wuhan livestock market where they claim the outbreak began.
Pompeo had previously also made various disputable claims.
