US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both claimed that there is evidence the pathogen came from the lab in Wuhan -- the city where the disease was first detected late last year. The top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has echoed the WHO's statement, telling National
Beijing - The Chinese laboratory accused by top American officials of being the source of the coronavirus pandemic conducts research on the world's most dangerous diseases.
The top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has echoed the WHO's statement, telling National Geographic that all evidence so far"strongly indicates" a natural origin. The lab's researchers had already conducted extensive investigations on the links between bats and disease outbreaks in China, and had highlighted the need to prepare for viruses potentially spreading out of their natural reservoirs into human communities.
The institute has said it received samples of the then-unknown virus on December 30, determined the viral genome sequence on January 2 and submitted information on the pathogen to the WHO on January 11. While Pompeo insisted on Wednesday that there is"significant evidence" that the virus came from the lab, he acknowledged that there was no certainty.Researchers have noted that while there is no proof for the lab accident theory, there is also no clear evidence that the virus came from the Wuhan market.
"We need to look at the origin of this virus. It is important because from a public health point of view we want to know how it happened and learn from this," he said.
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