US Concerned About Wuhan Research Two Years Ago
This from the UK Daily Mail, April 15, 2020
The US State Department raised concerns over safety issues at the Wuhan research lab studying coronaviruses in animals like bats two years ago, new diplomatic cables reveal.
A US delegation led by Jamison Fouss, consul general in Wuhan, and Rick Switzer, the Beijing embassy’s counselor of environment, science, technology and health, visited the Wuhan level four biosafety lab multiple times from January to March 2018.
They voiced concern over a lack of safety protocols and the biosafety of the lab’s research on coronavirus in animals like bats and warned that if cautionary steps weren’t taken, the lab’s research could spark a SARS-like outbreak.
They sent two ‘sensitive but unclassified cables’ back to Washington, DC asking for assistance to help the lab heighten its security measures.
They warned that a lack of tight safety measures in handing the contagious viruses in the lab ‘represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic.’
‘During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,’ a cable dated January 19, 2018 said.
‘The cable was a warning shot. They were begging people to pay attention to what was going on,’ one US official said.
The cables argued that the United States should give the Wuhan lab further support to help control the situation, but after those messages no extra assistance was provided to those labs.
The US was not only flagged to the activities going on in that laboratory, but they were also prior financially and scientifically involved in their studies.
The WIV received assistance from the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and other U.S. organizations in its work.
The US National Institute of Health, a government agency, also gave a $3.7million research grant to the WIV to carry out research on bats from caves in Yunnan, more than 1,000 miles away. Scientists have traced the sequencing of the COVID-19 genome to Yunnan, the Mail on Sunday revealed over the weekend. It’s not clear when that grant was given.
Army General Mark Milley says the coronavirus outbreak was likely natural but admits 'we can't be certain' after report claimed it was developed in a Wuhan lab that the US oversaw
- The US military addressed speculation in the media and on blogs Tuesday
- 'I would just say, at this point, it's inconclusive although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural,' Mark Milley said
- When asked if there was any evidence the coronavirus may have been developed in a Chinese laboratory, the Army General said 'we can't be certain'
- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said 'at this point, it's inconclusive although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural'
- Tuesday's report mentions that in January 2018, the US Embassy in Beijing 'took the unusual step of repeatedly sending US science diplomats to the Wuhan lab
- Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is believed to be where patient zero worked
- Information about the final visit in March 2018 was wiped off the website last week as was the profile of the person allegedly first infected
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
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The US military believes that the coronavirus likely occurred naturally and was not developed in a Chinese laboratory as some rumors and reports have suggested about the November 2019 outbreak.
After a Washington Post article on Tuesday, claimed it came from a worker at a bat-testing lab in Wuhan that the US regularly visited, the military addressed it in a media briefing.
'There's a lot of rumor and speculation in a wide variety of media, the blog sites, etc,' Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said when asked if there was any evidence the coronavirus may have been developed in a Chinese laboratory.
'It should be no surprise to you that we've taken a keen interest in that and we've had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that.
Further Reading: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8219083/US-military-general-says-coronavirus-outbreak-likely-natural-admits-certain.html
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