Call to probe US for virus origins
Print Edition
A SENIOR Chinese epidemiologist said the United States should be the priority in the next phase of investigations into the origin of COVID-19 after a study showed the disease could have been circulating there as early as December 2019, state media said yesterday.
The study, published this week by the US National Institutes for Health, showed that at least seven people in five US states were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, weeks before the United States reported its first official cases.
A China-World Health Organization joint study published in March said COVID-19 introduction through an intermediate host is “likely to very likely,” introduction through cold/food chain products is “possible,” and introduction through a laboratory incident is “extremely unlikely.”
Slow to test people
Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times that attention should shift to the United States, which was slow to test people in the early stages of the outbreak, and is also the home of many biological laboratories.
“All bio-weapons related subjects that the country has should be subject to scrutiny,” he was quoted as saying.
Commenting on the US study on Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said it was now “obvious” the COVID-19 outbreak had “multiple origins” and that other countries should cooperate with the WHO.
The origin of the pandemic has become a source of political tension between China and the United States, with US politicians pointing fingers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in Wuhan where the outbreak was first identified in late 2019.
A previous study has raised the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 could have been circulating in Europe as early as September.
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