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- Published: June 22, 2021 18:57
New Delhi: China’s Foreign Ministry has called the Nobel Prize in Medicine for Wuhan Virology Lab or their role in studying COVID-19 while the US is investigating whether it leaked the novel coronavirus.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhau Lijian, Speaking at a press conference responded to allegations that the lab itself was responsible for the pandemic, with accusations ranging from claiming it either deliberately engineered and spread the virus or that a leak in the facility caused the outbreak.
“If those that first publish high-quality viral genomes were to be accused of making the virus, then Prof. Luc Montagnier, who first discovered the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), would be considered the culprit of AIDS rather than awarded the Nobel Prize, and Mr. Louis Pasteur, who discovered microbes, would be held accountable for the disease-causing bacteria all around the globe,” Lijian said.
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“By analogy, the team in Wuhan should be awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for their research on COVID-19, instead of being criticized.”
The statement comes as the Wuhan virology lab was listed as a candidate for the 2021 Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for their role in helping identify the pathogeny of COVID-19, according to the Chinese state media outlet Global Times.
The lab leak theory was once dismissed by many experts but has recently gained new traction.
The Wall Street Journal revealed a US intelligence report that said that three employees at the Wuhan Institute of Virology got sick more than a month before experts found the first COVID-19 cases.
Days after The Journal’s report, President Joe Biden ordered a new investigation from the intelligence community into the origins of the virus. He gave a 90-day deadline for the results.