The United States is exploring the possibility that the novel coronavirus was accidentally released from a Chinese lab, intelligence sources told the media.
The outbreak emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where some of the country’s top research laboratories are located. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has done research on coronaviruses that originate in bats, as is thought to be the case with the new virus.
China insisted the outbreak started at a wet market in the city. But media pointed out that the market did not sell bats, and the first patient, as well as multiple other early cases, did not have any connection to the market.
US president Donald Trump and secretary of state Mike Pompeo made statements confirming that the government was exploring the idea that a Wuhan lab accidentally released the virus into the public, perhaps through a worker who unknowingly became infected.
“I find it very funny that China very quickly blamed the market”, a US intelligence official said. Academic journals pointed out samples of SARS were twice leaked accidentally from Chinese labs before.
“What we do know is we know that this virus originated in Wuhan, China. We know there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was. There is still lots to learn. The United States government is working diligently to figure it out”, Pompeo said.
Earlier this week, documents leaked to the media showed that after Chinese officials secretly determined on January 14 that they were likely facing a pandemic from the coronavirus, they warned the public 6 days later, on January 20. In those days, the city of Wuhan hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people, and millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.
The former head of Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service John Sawers said that China should answer for hiding crucial information about the coronavirus outbreak from the rest of the world.
Last month, several top UK government officials said that the government is furious after scientists pointed out that China probably downplayed its number of cases of the virus “by a factor of 15 to 40 times”.
