Mike Pompeo's Claim On The Strong Evidence Of The Corona Virus From The Wuhan Lab Is Mere Rhetoric

JAKARTA - United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, yesterday, May 3, claimed to have found strong evidence of the new corona virus coming from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) Laboratory, China, without disclosing the evidence. His chatter only appears as mere rhetoric to cover up the flood of criticism against the US Government.

The claim that Pompeo made during an interview with ABC This Week is arguably further rhetoric. Previously, Pompeo said the US was exploring evidence that the new coronavirus came from a virology laboratory in Wuhan, China.

"There is great evidence that that's where this (new coronavirus) started," Pompeo said. "I can tell you that there is a large amount of evidence that this virus originated in the Wuhan laboratory."

Sheer rhetoric?

The US Secretary of State seems still unsure of his own stance. One side, Pompeo believes that the virus that causes COVID-19 was deliberately created by humans. "The best experts so far think this is man-made. I have no reason not to believe it at this point," said Pompeo.

However, on the other hand, Pompeo also did not deny the official statement by the US Intelligence Service (CIA) which said the opposite: viruses are not made by humans. Pompeo agreed with the statement. "That's right. I agree with that," he said.

Quoting The Guardian, last Thursday US President Donald Trump made a similar claim. He admitted that he knew that there was evidence of a pandemic starting from a Chinese laboratory but was not allowed to disclose it.

On the same day, Pompeo said via radio interview that he did not know whether the virus came from the WIV laboratory or not. He also did not believe this virus originated from the Wuhan wet market. "We don't know that answer," he said.

Apart from the mystery of where the virus called Sars-CoV-2 originated, what is clear is that the Trump administration has been heavily criticized for its poor response to the response to the public health crisis that occurred due to COVID-19. Trump's ranks appear to be trying to focus on blaming China rather than implementing a proactive policy of tackling COVID-19.

Until Sunday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University, the US was the country with the most cases of COVID-19. There were 1,134,507 cases recorded with 66,000 deaths.

Still citing the same source, most epidemiologists said it was possible for the pandemic to start from the WIV laboratory, Wuhan. However, it is less likely than the theory that COVID-19 is transmitted naturally from bats.

Meanwhile, Beijing has dismissed suggestions that the virus could escape the laboratory. However, Chinese authorities have not allowed foreign experts, including from the World Health Organization (WHO), to participate in investigating the origins of Sars-CoV-2.