“These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab. And so, while the intelligence community continues to do its work, they should continue to do that, and verify so that we are certain, I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.”
It comes only days after US president Donald Trump blamed China for its handling of the outbreak.
The US has had the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths, more than 66,300, as well as the highest number of reported Covid-19 cases, over 1.1 million.
Worldwide, the outbreak has infected more than 3.4 million people and killed over 246,000, according to the same Johns Hopkins University tally based on figures supplied by government health authorities around the globe
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today suggested coronavirus may have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus was first reported.
He cited poor safety and security at epidemiological laboratories, including in the city of Wuhan.
He stressed that he had no reason to believe that the virus was deliberately spread but he ramped up already harsh U.S. criticism of the Chinese for their response to the outbreak.
“Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,” Pompeo said on Sunday (May 3) on ABC’s “This Week” program.
“These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab. And so, while the intelligence community continues to do its work, they should continue to do that, and verify so that we are certain, I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.”
It comes only days after US president Donald Trump blamed China for its handling of the outbreak.
The US has had the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths, more than 66,300, as well as the highest number of reported Covid-19 cases, over 1.1 million.
Worldwide, the outbreak has infected more than 3.4 million people and killed over 246,000, according to the same Johns Hopkins University tally based on figures supplied by government health authorities around the globe
