US lawmakers have indicated that it is impossible to determine the true origin of Covid-19 because the Chinese government continues to put obstacles in the way of researchers and officials, writes Politico.
On Sunday, the 5th of March, a discussion took place in the US Congress, and that followed the announcements made in the previous weeks that Covid-19 most likely originated in a Chinese laboratory. That’s the theory agreed upon by the US Department of Energy and the FBI. Some other US government authorities indicate that the virus rather began to spread after it crossed the animal-human border in a natural way.
It was in Wuhan, where several biotechnology laboratories are located, that the virus began to spread at the end of 2019.
Virginia Senator Mark Warner blamed China for refusing to be open and honest about the origins of Covid-19. Warner said:
«If this virus had originated virtually anywhere else, we would have had world scientists there. At the end of the day, we’ve got to keep looking, and we’ve got to make sure, in terms of future pandemics , that we can have access to where the source of these diseases originate a lot earlier on.»
The virus has claimed more than a million lives in the US, and the number is close to seven million worldwide. White House spokesman John Kirby said at the end of February that the US government has not yet come to a common denominator about the start of the pandemic and the origin of the virus.
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox TV that «it was a Chinese virus that came from a lab». Pompeo also suggested that US support for international research may have been linked to the development of the virus.
Leana Wen, a professor at George Washington University, told CNN that there is evidence that could support both laboratory-origin and natural-origin theories. At the same time, it is said to be aware that the virus was not spread intentionally in any case, and it was not intended as a biological weapon.