{"id":24718,"date":"2020-05-01T07:35:28","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T02:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/virus-was-not-manmade-u-s-agencies\/"},"modified":"2020-05-01T07:35:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T02:05:28","slug":"virus-was-not-manmade-u-s-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=24718","title":{"rendered":"Virus was not manmade: U.S. agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Intel officials \u2018are examining whether the origins of the pandemic trace to an accident at a Chinese lab\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AP<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the new coronavirus was \u201cnot manmade or genetically modified\u201d but say they are still examining whether the origins of the pandemic trace to contact with infected animals or an accident at a Chinese lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the clearinghouse for the web of U.S. spy agencies, comes as President Donald Trump and his allies have touted the as-yet-unproven theory that an infectious disease lab in Wuhan, the epicentre of the Chinese outbreak, was the source of the global pandemic that has killed more than 220,000 worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent days, the Trump administration has sharpened his rhetoric on China, accusing the geopolitical foe and vital trading partner of failing to act swiftly enough to stop the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 or sound the alarm to the world about the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified,\u201d said the statement. \u201cThe IC 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump addressed the theory earlier this month, saying, \u201cMore and more, we\u2019re hearing the story.\u201d Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added: \u201cThe mere fact that we don\u2019t know the answers \u2014 that China hasn\u2019t shared the answers \u2014 I think is very, very telling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Pompeo also pressed China to let outside experts into the lab \u201cso that we can determine precisely where this virus began.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists say the virus arose naturally in bats. Even so, Mr. Pompeo and others have pointed fingers at an institute that is run by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has done groundbreaking research tracing the likely origins of the SARS virus, finding new bat viruses and discovering how they could jump to people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was,\u201d Mr. Pompeo said two weeks ago. The institute has an address 13 kilometers, from the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. officials say the American Embassy in Beijing flagged concerns about potential safety issues at the lab in Wuhan in 2018, but have yet to find any evidence the virus originated there nearly two years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purely fabricated<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese government said on Thursday that any claims that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory are \u201cunfounded and purely fabricated out of nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang cited the institute\u2019s director, Yuan Zhiming, as saying the lab strictly implements bio-security procedures that would prevent the release of any pathogen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to point out again that the origin of the virus is a complex scientific issue, and it should be studied by scientists and professionals,\u201d Mr. Geng said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also criticised U.S. politicians who have suggested China should be held accountable for the global pandemic, saying they should spend their time on \u201cbetter controlling the epidemic situation at home\u201d. But a government spokesman, Zhao Lijian, demonstrated that China was not above sowing confusion . He tweeted in March the falsehood that the virus might have come from the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intel officials \u2018are examining whether the origins of the pandemic trace to an accident at a Chinese lab\u2019 AP U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the new coronavirus was \u201cnot manmade or genetically modified\u201d but say they are still examining whether the origins of the pandemic trace to contact with infected animals or an accident […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}