US COVID-19 'Wuhan Origin Theory' Resurfaces... "WHO Must Conduct Transparent Investigation" (Comprehensive)

US Infectious Disease Experts Also Say "May Not Be Naturally Occurring"
No Origin Evidence Unlike Other Coronaviruses
US Politicians, Previously Restrained by Anti-Asia Sentiment, Now Speak in Unison

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The so-called "China origin theory," which claims that COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, is resurging in the United States and becoming the center of controversy. After reports on a classified U.S. government report strongly raising suspicions about the China origin theory, infectious disease experts in the U.S. have also suggested the possibility of COVID-19 being artificially created, lending support to the China origin theory.

According to foreign media including CNN on the 24th (local time), White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mentioned the controversy over the China origin theory of COVID-19 during a press briefing, stating, "The United States hopes that the World Health Organization (WHO) will launch a transparent investigation free from politics and led by experts regarding the origin of COVID-19." This remark is interpreted as an indirect criticism of the close relationship between China and the WHO.

Earlier, on the previous day, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) cited contents from a classified U.S. intelligence report, reporting that "three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized in November 2019, before the pandemic outbreak, with symptoms similar to COVID-19." It is known that Chinese authorities first reported the occurrence of COVID-19 to the WHO on December 30, 2019. Following this report, the China origin theory has resurged in the U.S., expanding the controversy.

The Chinese government has strongly denied the report as completely untrue. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian rebutted at a press conference the previous day, saying, "The U.S. report that Wuhan Institute of Virology staff were ill just before the COVID-19 pandemic is a slanderous claim targeting China and is entirely false."

However, infectious disease experts in the U.S. are also lending support to the China origin theory. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), stated in an interview with CNBC on the same day, "In the case of other coronaviruses, about a year after the pandemic, we usually know which animal it originated from, but for COVID-19, we still have not found evidence," adding, "There is an increasing number of papers discussing the possibility of COVID-19 being artificially created."

Some interpret that the U.S. political sphere, conscious of past controversies over racial discrimination against Asian Americans, is now speaking with one voice to form an anti-China containment strategy. The U.S. political media outlet The Hill reported, "Pressure is continuing mainly from the Republican Party for the Biden administration to find links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID-19," and "It is expected that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, which had refrained from mentioning the issue due to the backlash from anti-Asian sentiment until recently, will actively engage."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.