BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese state media has offered a rare glimpse of the lab at the heart of coronavirus conspiracy theories, as it seeks to push back against claims the facility was the source of the global pandemic. President Donald Trump and other US figures have repeatedly suggested the virus could have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, or even been deliberately produced there. Footage broadcast by state-run CCTV is believed to be […]
Tag: lab
The Wuhan lab at the heart of the US-China virus spat
by Beiyi SEOW Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — The Chinese laboratory accused by top American officials of being the source of the coronavirus pandemic conducts research on the world’s most dangerous diseases. US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both claimed that there is evidence the pathogen came from the lab in Wuhan — the city where the disease was first detected late last year. But the World Health […]
US Secretary of State Pompeo steps up pressure on China over pandemic handling
by Brian KNOWLTON Agence France Presse Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday stepped up a US campaign to hold China accountable for the spread of the deadly coronavirus, asserting there is “enormous evidence” the virus originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. The high-security bio-containment facility, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has called such claims “impossible”. Pompeo, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” did not elaborate on what he also described as “significant […]
US President Trump points finger at China lab as WHO asks to join virus probe
by Sebastian Smith, with AFP bureaus Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump has said he has seen evidence the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, an assertion that threatened on Friday to turn a global health emergency into a diplomatic crisis. The US president’s statement was immediately undermined by intelligence officials and top diplomat Mike Pompeo, who said: “We don’t know precisely where it began.” But the […]
Director of Wuhan lab denies virus link
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The director of a maximum-security laboratory in China’s coronavirus ground-zero city of Wuhan has rejected claims that it could be the source of the outbreak, calling it “impossible”. Beijing has come under increasing pressure over transparency in its handling of the pandemic, with the US probing whether the virus actually originated in a virology institute with a high-security biosafety laboratory. Chinese scientists have said the virus likely jumped from an animal […]
Coronavirus was spreading in NYC in February, came via Europe
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The novel coronavirus began spreading in New York City in February, before widespread testing began, and the strain so far identified in local samples came from Europe, a scientist said Wednesday. Adriana Heguy, a geneticist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine who led the research, told AFP that tracing back the virus’ chain of transmission will help policy makers make better informed social interventions in the future. “It’s very interesting […]





