The White House said there was no consensus within the administration of President Joe Biden about the origin of the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic, while the US ambassador to China called on Beijing to be "more honest".
The above statements come after the revelation of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on February 27 that the US Department of Energy determined that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was likely to have escaped from a research facility in China due to the virus. mistake. This revelation has put pressure on the White House.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on the same day said US President Joe Biden was determined to find out where Covid-19 began, but the administration is still uncertain about the origin of the virus. He declined to comment on the WSJ 's reporting .
"Right now, the US government has no consensus on how exactly Covid started. We simply haven't come to a conclusion... If we have anything ready to tell you about it. The people and Congress of the United States, we will do the same," the WSJ quoted Kirby as telling reporters.
The US Department of Energy made the assessment based on new intelligence, albeit with "low confidence", according to the WSJ . Four other US government agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still believe that the Covid-19 pandemic may have been the result of natural transmission from infected animals, while two Others have not yet concluded.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby (right) during a press conference at the White House
REUTERS |
The Chinese government has denied the assessment and accused the US Department of Energy of deliberately "smearing" Beijing. "The origin of the new strain of corona virus is a scientific matter and should not be politicized," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a press conference in Beijing on February 27.
US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said that Beijing "must be more honest about what happened in Wuhan three years ago, related to the origin of the Covid-19 crisis", according to Reuters. Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province, was where the first human cases of Covid-19 were detected in December 2019.
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