Beijing formally denied on Monday the American accusations concerning the origin of the Covid-19. A new US intelligence report leans in favor of the thesis of a laboratory accident in Wuhan. China considers itself “soiled” by these new accusations. This report from the American national leadership revives the controversy over the origins of Covid-19 even as the Chinese authorities claim that the page of the pandemic has been turned. According to this new report provided to the White House and the US Congress, the hypothesis of a laboratory leak in Wuhan should not be ruled out.
For Mao Ning, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this is a political maneuver. “We should stop agitating this theory of a laboratory leak, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the search for the origins of the virus,” said a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. , Mao Ning, during a regular press briefing.
“A leak from a laboratory is highly unlikely”
Beijing was reacting to the recent change in analysis within the US Department of Energy. The latter oversees biology laboratories and would now retain, “with a low level of confidence”, the track of a laboratory leak in China, on the strength of a new report from an intelligence agency revealed by Wall Street on Sunday. Journal and The New York Times. “Experts from China and WHO, based on field visits to laboratories in Wuhan and in-depth exchanges with researchers, have reached the authoritative conclusion that the option of a leak from a lab is highly unlikely,” Mao Ning insisted.
In a reaction on Monday, the World Health Organization said it “has seen the press articles but has not received any information” on this subject. “WHO and SAGO (Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of New Pathogens, editor’s note) will continue to review all available scientific evidence that could help advance knowledge of the origins of SARS CoV 2, and we call on the China as well as the scientific community to undertake the necessary studies for this,” said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the organization. “Pending more elements, all hypotheses remain on the table,” he added.
A lead retained by the FBI
Three years after the start of the pandemic, the origin of the virus which has killed nearly 7 million people worldwide and shaken the march of the globe remains however still undetermined. In February 2021, WHO experts and Chinese scientists had deemed “highly improbable” the track of an accident at the Chinese virology institute in Wuhan, and favored the hypothesis of a natural origin of the virus and of transmission to humans by an “intermediate” animal.
Since then, the hypothesis of laboratory manipulation coupled with an accidental leak has however resurfaced, particularly in the United States where this track is, according to the Wall Street Journal, notably retained by the FBI. A sign that the debate remains open in the United States. Four American intelligence agencies believe that the Covid is of natural origin and two remain undecided, according to the Wall Street Journal review. “At this time, no definitive response from the intelligence community has emerged on the matter,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on CNN on Sunday.
In mid-February, WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus personally pledged to do everything to obtain “an answer” on the origins of Covid-19, strongly denying reports that the organization had given up on finalizing its investigation. on the subject.