Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The White House has said it cannot confirm The Wall Street Journal’s recent claim, citing a US intelligence report, that three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had sought hospital care in November 2019, a month before the Asian country reported the first cases of Covid-19.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday the US “ needed more information”, echoing what the WHO team said two months ago.
She said the United States hopes the World Health Organization (WHO) can move into a more transparent investigation of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
In an attempt to recalibrate its relations with China and the WHO, the Biden Administration is struggling to leave behind the claims made by the previous President Donald Trump in early 2020 that the pandemic was caused by a “Chinese virus”; he had also accused the WHO with being pro-China and severed America’s relations with the global health watchdog.
The WSJ cited a December 2020 “US intelligence report” about the three sick WIV researchers. The report came when Trump was packing his bags to leave the White House.
From the very beginning of the pandemic, its origins gave rise to several conspiracy theories, on the alleged leak of the virus to its intentional release, biological warfare, etc.
These got more credence when Beijing steadfastly prevented for several months a WHO team from entering China to investigate the virus origins. Beijing was also accused of ‘white washing’ the WIV and other places to destroy pieces of evidence.
After its visit, the WHO team had only said in March that it needed “further investigation”. And now the White House is echoing it!