Serviciile de informaţii din SUA apreciază că noul coronavirus este probabil (dar nu cu siguranţă) natural
According to classified information obtained by the United States, the coronavirus is likely-though not definitively-of natural origin and not engineered in a laboratory in China, stated General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as reported by Reuters.
Milley’s remarks, as the highest-ranking military official in the U.S., may fuel ongoing speculation regarding the virus’s origins, which China has dismissed as conspiracy theories that detract from efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Reuters.
During a press briefing at the Pentagon, when asked if he had evidence supporting the theory that the virus originated in a Chinese lab, Milley refrained from giving a definitive answer. „There are numerous rumors and speculations circulating in various media, blogs, etc. It shouldn’t surprise you that we have become genuinely interested in this matter and have had to scrutinize a lot of classified information. At this point, I would say the evidence is inconclusive, although most indications lean towards a natural origin. But we do not know for certain,” the general remarked.
Last month, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry tweeted that the outbreak could have been introduced to Wuhan by the U.S. military. The U.S. government condemned this assertion, with President Donald Trump referring to the coronavirus as the „Chinese virus” in his press statements. The State Department in Washington accused China of attempting to deflect criticism regarding its role in the pandemic’s onset and of concealing information from the global community.
In February, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which is state-supported, responded to rumors about the virus being artificially synthesized in a lab. That same month, a group of 27 researchers published a statement in the medical journal Lancet condemning conspiracy theories that „only serve to create fear, rumors, and damage that jeopardize international collaboration to combat the virus.” The authors asserted that the „overwhelming majority” of scientists have concluded that the virus originated from wildlife.
The coronavirus, officially named SARS-CoV-2, was first identified in Wuhan, China. On Tuesday, an editorial in the Washington Post revealed that the U.S. State Department had issued diplomatic cables in 2018 warning about vulnerabilities in the management and safety protocols at the WIV. The newspaper noted the consensus among the majority of the scientific community regarding the virus’s animal origin rather than a synthetic one, while also citing an expert who did not rule out the lab as a potential source, where bat coronaviruses had been tested on animals for several years.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined to directly comment on the Washington Post article. In a radio interview, he stated, „We know this is a global pandemic that began in Wuhan, China. We know there were live animal markets there. So we are starting to piece the facts together.”
