China must be held accountable if US intelligence’s investigation into claims the novel coronavirus could have originated from a laboratory in Wuhan turns out to be true, lawmakers have insisted.
It comes after President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the US is trying to determine whether the coronavirus first crossed to humans accidentally during experiments with bats at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Lab.
Senator for Arizona Martha McSally said there is ‘zero doubt’ the Chinese government has ‘American blood on its hands’ (File image)
Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that there is ‘much circumstantial evidence’ to suggest the virus was leaked from a Wuhan laboratory (File image)
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is China’s only bio-safety level four (BSL-4) facility
A US intelligence official confirmed the intelligence community is actively seeking information on the topic and are updating lawmakers on their findings, according to a CBS report.
Senator for Arizona Martha McSally said there is ‘zero doubt’ China has ‘American blood on its hands’.
‘There is zero doubt that the Chinese communist government has American blood on its hands.
‘They put American lives at risk by covering up the origin and scope of the coronavirus crisis,’ she told Fox News.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that there is ‘much circumstantial evidence’ to suggest the virus was leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.
Speaking on The Sean Hannity Show, Senator Tom Cotton (pictured) agreed it seemed ‘highly coincidental’ that ‘this very contagious virus originated just a few hundred yards or maybe a couple miles from laboratories where the Chinese Communist Party researches coronaviruses’
‘What we do know is we know that this virus originated in Wuhan, China,’ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Wednesday evening. ‘We know there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was. There is still lots to learn. The United States government is working diligently to figure it out’
‘HUGE. There is much circumstantial evidence, including TWO Chinese labs in Wuhan that were studying bat coronaviruses.
‘If the virus accidentally escaped from the labs—and the CCP covered it up—then the Chinese govt is responsible for 130k+ global deaths,’ he wrote on Wednesday.
Speaking on The Sean Hannity Show, Senator Tom Cotton agreed it seemed ‘highly coincidental’ that ‘this very contagious virus originated just a few hundred yards or maybe a couple miles from laboratories where the Chinese Communist Party researches coronaviruses.’
Cotton also said there must be repercussions for the Chinese Communist Party ‘if it turns out that Chinese negligence and then Chinese corruption and treachery was responsible for unleashing this pandemic on the world.’
A worker is seen ninside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan. Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that there is ‘much circumstantial evidence’ to suggest the virus was leaked from a Wuhan laboratory
After word of the outbreak finally became public, Chinese leaders were quick to blame Wuhan’s ‘wet market’ where wild animals — though not bats — are sold for consumption, leading one source to tell Fox News the debacle is the ‘costliest government coverup of all time.’
‘Patient zero’ worked at the Wuhan lab, and spread the virus into the local population after leaving work, sources who had been briefed on intelligence told the outlet.
China has refuted claims that the virus may have originated in a laboratory near the city of Wuhan where contagious samples were being stored.
A colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample
The Wuhan laboratory pictured in a file photo. The Wuhan lab is China’s only bio-safety level four (BSL-4) facility, and has long been eyed with suspicion as scientists try to determine how the deadly virus crossed over into humans
‘What we do know is we know that this virus originated in Wuhan, China,’ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Wednesday evening. ‘We know there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was. There is still lots to learn. The United States government is working diligently to figure it out.’
Asked about the new allegations at a White House press conference on Wednesday, Trump replied cryptically: ‘More and more, we’re hearing the story.’
It comes as China today revised the death toll in coronavirus ground-zero Wuhan, revealing that nearly 4,000 people have died from the illness in the area.
In a social media post, the city government added 1,290 deaths to the tally in Wuhan, bringing the toll to 3,869.
Officials said many fatal cases were ‘mistakenly reported’ or missed entirely in an admission that comes amid growing global doubts about Chinese transparency.
The global pandemic originally emerged in Wuhan and went on to suffer the vast majority of China’s fatalities from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.