President Donald Trump, on Thursday, claimed that he had
seen information indicating the Wuhan Institute of Virology is behind the
COVID-19 outbreak.
Wuhan is the Chinese city where the COVID-19 outbreak began
The US, among others, blamed China for the coronavirus
pandemic, saying the country did not alert the rest of the world to the disease
in time and that it mismanaged the spread of the virus, but China has
repeatedly denied these allegations.
The US president made the claim while speaking with
journalists from the White House on Thursday. He, however, did not provide any
details to back up his claim.
“Yes I have,” Trump responded when asked if he had seen any
information that the virus originated from the laboratory, adding that the
“World Health Organisation should be ashamed of themselves”.
Asked to provide more details, the US president replied: “I
can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
The office of the director of national intelligence earlier
said it “will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and
intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with
infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in
Wuhan”.
It, however, said it agreed “with the wide scientific
consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified”.
Defending its focus on the Chinese lab, the Hogan Gidley,
White House spokesman, had said: As the president has said, the United States
is thoroughly investigating this matter.”
“Understanding the origins of the virus is important to help
the world respond to this pandemic but also to inform rapid-response efforts to
future infectious disease outbreaks.”
The US has the highest number of COVID-19 infections and
deaths globally — with 1,095,304 confirmed cases and 63,871 deaths.
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