The United States government has reaffirmed its long-standing position that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China.

This statement, attributed to the administration of President Donald Trump, was published on the official White House website on Friday.

Central to the renewed claims is the assertion that scientific and circumstantial evidence increasingly supports a lab-based origin of the virus, as opposed to natural transmission from animals to humans.

The Trump administration alleged that “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” a publication that was used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to discredit the lab leak theory, was prompted by Dr. Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID-19 originated naturally.

The US government’s statement cited several reasons for its stance, including the claim that SARS-CoV-2 displays biological characteristics not typically found in nature.

“The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.”

It also argued that “data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover events.”

Further implicating China, the US noted that “Wuhan is home to China’s foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research (gene altering and organism supercharging) at inadequate biosafety levels.”

According to the report, some WIV researchers experienced COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, before the virus was identified at a local seafood market.

“By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin, it would have already surfaced,” the publication argued, suggesting that the absence of such evidence supports the lab leak theory.

These renewed claims surface amid ongoing tensions between the United States and China, intensified by a prolonged trade war. Both nations have imposed steep tariffs of 145 per cent by China and 245 per cent by the US on imported goods.

As of this report, the Chinese government has not issued an official response to the latest US allegations.

According to data from Worldometer, the global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in more than 704 million confirmed cases and over seven million deaths since the first recorded outbreak in China.

https://punchng.com/again-us-links-covid-19-to-chinese-lab/