Pompeo says 'enormous evidence' virus came from Wuhan lab
04 May, 2020
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that there was "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus pandemic started in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
"There is enormous evidence that is where it began," he said on ABC's "This Week."
But while highly critical of China's handling of the matter, Pompeo declined to say whether he thought the virus have been intentionally released.
President Donald Trump has been increasingly critical of China's role in the pandemic, which includes infected almost 3.5 million people and killed a lot more than 240,000 around the world.
He has insisted that Beijing recklessly concealed important info on the outbreak and demanded that Beijing be held "accountable."
News reports say Trump has tasked U.S. spies to determine more about the origins of the virus, initially blamed on a Wuhan market selling exotic animals like bats, but now thought possibly to be from a virus research laboratory nearby.
Pompeo, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told ABC that he agreed with a statement Thursday from the U.S. intelligence community in which it concurred "with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified."
But he went beyond Trump, in citing "significant" and "enormous" evidence that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
"I think the whole world can easily see now, remember, China includes a history of infecting the world and running substandard laboratories," Pompeo said.
He said early Chinese efforts to downplay the coronavirus amounted to "a classic Communist disinformation effort. That created enormous risk."
"President Trump is very clear: we'll hold those responsible accountable."
Source: japantoday.com
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