Covid ‘almost certainly’ originated from Chinese lab: FBI chief Christopher Wray

FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated that the bureau believes that the lethal Covid-19 pandemic was almost certainly attributable to a “potential lab incident” at a Chinese government-controlled facility in Wuhan.

It is the primary public affirmation of the FBI’s labeled judgement of how the pandemic virus emerged from the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan in late 2019. (File picture: AP)

By Press Trust of India: FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated that the bureau believes that the lethal Covid-19 pandemic was almost certainly attributable to a “potential lab incident” at a Chinese government-controlled facility in Wuhan.

It is the primary public affirmation of the FBI’s labeled judgement of how the pandemic virus emerged from the central Chinese metropolis of Wuhan in late 2019.

“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident,” Wray informed Fox News in an interview aired on Tuesday.

Wray’s feedback come simply days after information of the Department of Energy’s “low-confidence” evaluation that Covid-19 almost certainly originated from a laboratory leak in China.

Some research counsel the virus made the leap from animals to people in Wuhan, probably on the metropolis’s seafood and wildlife market. The market is positioned close to a number one virus laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

During the interview, the FBI chief additionally stated that China “has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate” efforts to determine the supply of the worldwide pandemic.

“I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And that’s unfortunate for everybody,” he stated.

Wray stated the FBI has specialists who deal with “the dangers of biological threats, which include things like novel viruses like COVID, and the concerns that they [are] in the wrong hands [of] some bad guys, a hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminal.”

Reacting sharply to Wray’s remarks, Chinese overseas ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated China strongly opposes “political manipulation” of the origins-tracing challenge in any type.

“Putting the intelligence community in charge for a matter of science is a clear sign that the issue has been politicised. Given the US intelligence community’s track record of making up stories, there is little, if any, credibility in their conclusions,” she stated in Beijing in response to a query.

The US won’t achieve discrediting China by rehashing the “lab leak” idea, however will solely harm the US’s personal status, Mao stated.

“We urge the US to respect science and facts, stop politicising this issue, stop its intelligence-led, politics-driven origins-tracing, and stop undermining international solidarity against the pandemic and global cooperation on science-based origins-tracing,” Mao added.

She additionally identified that increasingly clues from the worldwide science neighborhood are pointing the origins of virus to sources world wide.

“Many have raised questions and concerns about US bio-military bases at Fort Detrick and around the world. The US should work with the World Health Organisation to invite experts from the world to the US for origins-tracing study as soon as possible, and share the research result with the international community in a timely, open and transparent manner,” Mao added.

According to Johns Hopkins University’s Covid tracker, the pandemic has killed greater than 6.8 million folks worldwide because it broke out in late 2019.

On Monday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated that US President Joe Biden helps “a whole-of-government effort” to find how Covid started.

“We’re just not there [at consensus] yet,” he stated. “If we have something that is ready to be briefed to the American people and the Congress, we will do that.”

Posted By:

Raajnandini Mukherjee

Published On:

Mar 1, 2023