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Prognosis
Pompeo Says ‘Enormous Evidence’ Connects Virus to Wuhan Lab
By
Steve Geimann
May 3, 2020, 10:20 AM EDTUpdated on May 3, 2020, 11:49 AM EDT
  • Top diplomat stops short of calling Covid-19 virus man-made
  • Comments as Trump, aides sharpen criticism of Beijing

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An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan.

Photographer: Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images


Pompeo stopped short of saying the virus was man-made, noting that he agreed with a report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that ruled out genetic modification or it having been man-made.


The virus’s origin has become a flash point in the pandemic and ratcheted up tensions between the U.S. and China. President Donald Trump has escalated efforts to attach blame to China as U.S. pandemic deaths pass 66,000.


“I’ve seen what the intelligence community has said,” said Pompeo. “I have no reason to believe that they’ve got it wrong.” Pompeo declined to say whether the Chinese intentionally released the virus. “I don’t have anything to say about that,” he said.

Trump and his aides sharpened their criticism of Beijing last week, demanding answers about the virus’s origin. The president tweeted Friday that some U.S. television networks are “Chinese puppets,” while his super-political action committee unleashed anti-China ads.

“China behaved like authoritarian regimes do, attempted to conceal and hide and confuse,” Pompeo said on ABC. “It employed the World Health Organization as a tool to do the same.”


The secretary said China continued to block access by health experts from the WHO, as well as U.S. scientists, from getting access to samples of the virus needed for study.

“This is an ongoing threat, an ongoing pandemic,” Pompeo said. “The Chinese Communist Party continues to block access to the Western world, the world’s best scientists, to figure out exactly what happened.”
 
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