“Extremely unlikely": China responds to CIA statement on COVID-19 origin
Kyiv • UNN
China has denied the CIA's claim that COVID-19 was leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, calling it “extremely unlikely.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry cites joint research with the WHO and calls on the United States to stop politicizing the issue.
China said that the leakage of COVID-19 from the laboratory is "extremely unlikely," responding to the CIA's statement about the possibility of such an origin.
This is reported by Barron's and UNN .
The conclusion that a leak from the laboratory is extremely unlikely was made by a joint team of Chinese and WHO experts based on field research at the relevant laboratories in Wuhan
She added that this was recognized by both the international community and the scientific community.
Context
The CIA said that it has concluded with "low confidence" that the Covid-19 virus has escaped from a research center in Wuhan. This is a significant departure from its previous position: for five years, the CIA has stated that the evidence collected could not determine with certainty whether the outbreak was caused by an incident in the lab or whether the virus accidentally passed from an infected wild animal to people in a market in Wuhan.
Beijing called on the United States to "stop politicizing and exploiting the issue of provenance". Mao said that Washington should "stop vilifying others and shifting the blame to other countries, and answer the legitimate questions of the international community as soon as possible.
Recall
The new conclusion of the US Central Intelligence Agency about the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 was made after John Radcliffe became the CIA director in the second administration of Donald Trump.
