New Delhi: Bringing the issue of Coronavirus leak from Chinese lab back in focus, a report released by US Republicans has claimed that the deadly virus that triggered Covid-19 pandemic originated from a Chinese research facility.
It may be noted that there have been repeated claims of virus leakage from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and this US report further emboldens the theory.
The report claimed that it had “ample evidence” to proved that Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists – aided by US experts and Chinese and US government funds – were working to alter Coronaviruses character so that it could infect humans.
The report, indicting Chinese lab for the artificial virus manufacture and its leak was released by Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The US report has urged bipartisan investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic that has killed 4.4 million people across the globe till date.
“We now believe it’s time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source,” said the report. “We also believe the preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019.”
The report cited what it called new and under-reported information about safety protocols at the lab, including a July 2019 request for a $1.5 million overhaul of a hazardous waste treatment system for the facility, which was less than two years old.
In April, the top US intelligence agency had said it agreed with scientific community that the virus was not man-made or genetically modified.
Joe Biden govt has also asked US intelligence agencies to accelerate hunt for the origins of the virus and its report in 90 days.
China has repeatedly denied genetically modified coronavirus leaked from the facility in Wuhan – where the first Covid-19 cases were detected in 2019 but many economies of the world have strongly contested this claim and believe Chinese denial as a major cover up.