Calls Washington's COVID-19 Origin Report Untrustworthy, China: US Intelligence Has A Reputation For Fraud

Illustration of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China. (Wikimedia Commons/Ureem2805)

JAKARTA - An unclassified United States (US) intelligence report says it makes sense that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a laboratory. However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin is unscientific and lacks credibility, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in a statement on Sunday.

An updated US intelligence briefing, published on Saturday last week, says natural origin and laboratory leaks are plausible hypotheses to explain how SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, infected humans in the first place, but the truth is may never be known.

In Sunday's response on China's Foreign Ministry website, Wang said, "a lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie", adding the United States intelligence service "has a reputation for deception and deception."

"Tracking the origins of the new coronavirus is a serious and complex issue that must and can only be investigated through the cooperation of global scientists," he said.

China has consistently denied allegations the virus leaked from a specialist laboratory in the city of Wuhan, where COVID-19 was first identified in late 2019.

Wang also repeated China's call for the United States to open its own laboratory at Fort Detrick to international experts.

A joint study by China and the World Health Organization (WHO) published this year, ruled out a laboratory theory of COVID-19, saying the most likely hypothesis is that the virus infects humans naturally, perhaps through the wildlife trade.

Critics say the study failed to delve into the Wuhan laboratory and did not examine the raw data needed to understand the initial route of transmission of the virus.

WHO last month formed a new Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of the Pandemic (SAGO), asking China to provide raw data to aid in a new investigation. Meanwhile, China has refused, citing patient privacy rules.

To note, in an open letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week, a group of scientists critical of the organization said that while they welcome the new investigation into the origins of COVID-19, the composition of the proposed SAGO panel lacks skill and required impartiality.