Mike Pompeo pushes new claim of China hiding virus origin

A World Health Organization tram arrived in Wuhan, China, on Thursday to investigate the origin of the coronavirus pandemic

Credit: AP

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed on Friday that staff at a Chinese virology laboratory became sick with a Covid-like illness in autumn 2019, months before the coronavirus spread widely from Wuhan.

The day after a World Health Organization team landed in the central Chinese city on Thursday to probe the origins of the pandemic, Mr Pompeo suggested that a possible “laboratory accident” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) merited investigation.

In the final days of the administration of Donald Trump, who has been widely criticised for overseeing a disastrous pandemic response in which 393,000 Americans have died, Mr Pompeo has repeatedly sought to blame Beijing for the pandemic that has now killed over two million people worldwide. 

In a statement claiming to reveal previously “undisclosed information”, the State Department said it “has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.” 

While acknowledging it had no definitive proof that the outbreak began in a lab, the State Department accused the Chinese Communist Party of “systematically” preventing an investigation into the pandemic’s origin. 

“The CCP has prevented independent journalists, investigators, and global health authorities from interviewing researchers at the WIV, including those who were ill in the fall of 2019,” it said.

The arrival of the WHO investigative team was delayed by months of sensitive diplomatic negotiations. 

China has constructed an image as a global leader in the fight against the pandemic and there are concerns the secretive ruling party may try to restrict information that counters this narrative. 

Visa issues blocked the arrival of the team earlier this month, which a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry blamed on a “misunderstanding”. WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus offered a rare public rebuke expressing his frustration at the delay. 

Chinese officials barred two members of the team from boarding their flight to Wuhan after testing positive for antibodies during a layover in Singapore. 

The 13 members of the team who arrived are now under a two-week quarantine in Wuhan during which time they will interview Chinese experts by video link. 

After undergoing more testing, they plan to spend another two weeks interviewing researchers, hospital staff and workers at the Wuhan market to where the first infections were traced.