Mike Pompeo Demands Investigation of Wuhan Virus Lab
Richard Moorhead
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that China provide access to the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology to American investigators during an interview with Fox’s Maria Bartiromo on Friday, in order that the truth behind the origin of the Chinese coronavirus could be independently verified.
Fox cited anonymous government sources on Wednesday who claimed it looked likely coronavirus had escaped from the research facility in China. The primary theory for the origin of coronavirus involves the Wuhan Wet Market, a market where live and exotic animals are slaughtered and sold.
Pompeo’s call for an investigation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology could signal that the U.S. government is increasingly serious about the theories that claim the virus escaped from a lab.
“Clearly, we need to investigate whether that took place here,” said Pompeo in response to a question about Chinese scientific protocols. “Whether they had the capability to handle the kinds of viruses that were being studied or worked on in that laboratory. We don’t know those answers. The Chinese Communist Party needs to open up and let us get those answers.”
President Donald Trump mentioned the laboratory theory regarding the virus’ origins in Friday’s press conference, remarking that the horseshoe bats known as the carriers of viruses from which coronavirus descends from live forty miles away from Wuhan, China. He said the theory requires further investigation.
The veracity of the theory is far from set in stone. Viral diseases have been known to emerge from Chinese wet markets before, which represent a biologically danger in their own right.
Pompeo avoided formally endorsing legislative proposals that would secure compensation from China for its malfeasance in covering up the early spread of the virus. He also voiced concern about the increasing propagation of 5G technology across the world, a Chinese-developed telecommunications technology heavily dependent on companies such as Huawei known for a comfortable relationship with the nation’s authoritarian communist government.
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