United States Intelligence Report Three Wuhan Lab Researchers Rushed To Hospital A Month Before COVID-19 Pandemic

Institut Virologi Wuhan, China. (Wikimedia Commons/Ureem2805)

JAKARTA - Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were rushed to the hospital in November 2019, a few months before China revealed the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday, citing a previously undisclosed United States intelligence report.

The WSJ said the report provided new details about the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illness, and visits to hospitals. This report could add to the insistence on a broader investigation into the possibility of the COVID-19 virus coming from wiv laboratories.

The report comes on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next stage of the investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

A National Security Council spokesman did not comment on the WSJ report, but said Joe Biden's Administration continues to have serious questions about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins in the People's Republic of China".

He said the US Government is working with those and other member states to support expert-based evaluations of pandemic origins that are free from interference or politicization.

"We will not make a statement that harms the ongoing WHO study into the source of SARS-CoV-2. But we have clear, sensible, and technically trustworthy theories that should be thoroughly evaluated by international experts", he said, according to Reuters Monday, May 24.

The WSJ said current and former officials familiar with intelligence about laboratory investigators expressed varying views on the strength of the evidence supporting the report, with one unnamed person saying it needed "further investigation and additional evidence."

The United States, Norway, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other countries in March expressed concern about the WHO-led study of the origins of COVID-19. They called for further investigation and full access to all human, animal, and other related data about the early stages of the virus. extraordinary events.

WHO team in Wuhan, China. Between the two of them,

Meanwhile, Washington wants to ensure greater cooperation and transparency by China, according to a source with knowledge of the effort. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

On Sunday, China's Foreign Ministry outlined, the WHO-led team had concluded that a laboratory leak was highly unlikely after a visit in February to the virology institute.

"The US continues to tout the theory of laboratory leaks. Does it really matter about tracking down sources or trying to distract?", said China's Foreign Ministry in the WSJ report.

Earlier, Donald Trump's administration said it suspected the virus may have 'escaped' from a Chinese laboratory, which Beijing denies.

For the record, a State Department fact sheet released towards the end of the Trump Administration says", The US government has reason to believe that some researchers inside WIV fell ill in the fall of 2019 before the first outbreak cases were identified, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses". It was not mentioned how many researchers.

Meanwhile, China refused to provide raw data on early cases of COVID-19 to a WHO-led team investigating the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team's investigators, Reuters reported in February, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.