China Rejects Coronavirus in Wuhan Laboratory

The laboratory chief called these assumptions a "conspiracy theory." China denies the possibility for the coronavirus, which has developed into a pandemic, to originate in a biological laboratory, rather than as a result of the virus transmission from animal to human in Wuhan. Director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory Yuan Zhiming, told the English-language state-run channel CGTN that the spread of the virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in particular from its P4 laboratory, which works with dangerous viruses, is "excluded". He defined the assumptions that coronavirus originated in this laboratory, popularized by conservative supporters of US President Donald Trump, as a "conspiracy theory". White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx, speaking on the CBS Channel Sunday program, said that it’s still a long way from finding out the origin of the coronavirus. “It will take time to track this particular virus, to get scientific evidence of how this virus originated,” she said. “We know that it originated in China, but we don’t know how and where.” “I have no evidence that this was a lab incident,” she added. “I also don’t know exactly how it appeared.” “The generally accepted point of view now is that there has been transmission from animal to human,” she said. US Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News Sunday that China was “not open enough” about the December coronavirus outbreak. But, referring to the question of its origin, Pence said, "In due time we will make the appropriate requests." Yuan Zhiming said that none of the staff at his institute was infected, noting that the institution "conducts research in various areas related to coronavirus." Beijing has been criticized for its lack of transparency in responding to the pandemic. The US is investigating the possible origin of the virus in the Wuhan laboratory where Yuan works. Official statistics on the number of people infected in Wuhan have been questioned from the very beginning, given that authorities often changed their accounting criteria at the peak of the epidemic. A few days ago, Wuhan authorities admitted errors in counting the dead in the city, increasing their number by one and a half up to 3869 people. Although the origin of COVID-19 is still unclear, some scientists suggest that the virus could be transmitted from animals to humans in a Wuhan market.