China Accuses Coronavirus Was Originally From Fort Detrick Laboratory In The US

Researcher at Fort Detrick (Independent)

JAKARTA - Mutual accusations between the United States (US) and China regarding the origin of COVID-19 continue. Previously, the US said that this coronavirus came from the Wuhan laboratory. Now, it's China's turn to accuse Uncle Sam's country.

One news anchor in China said that suspicious things were happening in the laboratory located in Frederick Maryland, United States. The laboratory is called Fort Detrick.

The place is known as the US Army Institute of Medical Research's infectious disease laboratory. According to the news report, Fort Detrick's lab is the US's darkest experimental site. The news was broadcasted on China's Central Television (CCTV) channel.

According to a Daily Mail report on Monday, January 25, the accusations came after the local government pressed for the opening of the biology laboratory. Chinese authorities plan to invite WHO to Fort Detrick to investigate the origins of COVID-19 in the US.

It was Hua Chunying as the spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs who submitted a request that the lab is opened. Chunying claimed his actions were based on concerns from the international community.

"I emphasize that if the United States respects the facts, it must open a biology laboratory in Fort Detrick, provide more transparency to issues such as more than 200 laboratories abroad, invite experts from WHO to carry out investigations in the US and respond to the concerns of the international community with real action," Hua Chunying said.

The news anchor claims that this response comes from US accusations that previously accused the coronavirus of originating in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. He said that the theory which originated in the US ignores people's safety and lives.

He also said that China is very cooperative with WHO. It was reported that the world health agency had sent a team to investigate the origin of COVID-19 in Wuhan.

Although the exact origin of COVID-19 is not known, the scientific consensus says that the virus originated in bats and passed to humans via an intermediate host, as reported by the Daily Mail.