“We, collectively, the world, still has not had access to Chinese labs,” Pompeo told The National, a UAE-based publication.
https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam/status/1252990000070832128
It was the first time that Pompeo mentioned Chinese labs beyond the Wuhan-based Institute of Virology, where recent reports claim the coronavirus may have originated.
Repeating the fact that the virus did originate in China, Pompeo also cast doubts on the official World Health Organization narrative and claim that COVID-19 originated from animals.
“These labs in China, not just the WIV, there are multiple labs where the Chinese Communist Party is working on various levels of pathogens,” Pompeo told The National. “It is important that there would be a global effort (to be sure) that those people working with dangerous substances have the capability to prevent accidental release.”
The new statements will no doubt be taken as another Washington provocation in Beijing’s eyes, coming as speculation goes full mainstream that the deadly virus actually originated at either the Wuhan Institute of Virology (8 miles from the Wuhan wet market where cases first popped up last year) or the nearby Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (a mere 300 yards from the wet market).
Allies including Germany and Australia have voiced their support to the administration for its efforts to get to the bottom of where the virus actually originated, how, and what actions the Chinese did (and did not take) to contain it.
Pompeo noted that it “would be important to the question presented [determining the origin of the virus] and it’s important we get the answer, not just as a historical matter, but so we can prevent such a thing from happening again… it is time that there would be transparency and access so that the world can respond.”
Pompeo’s criticisms of both China and the WHO likely mean that there won’t be any cooperation
The so-called “mainstream media” — which was, early on, dismissive of the theory that the virus could have come from a Chinese lab — is finally getting on board. Frequent China critic Gordon Chang, a Daily Beast columnist, noted, “It is becoming increasingly clear that the [virus] escaped from one of the two bio labs in Wuhan, probably the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Patient Zero is almost certainly a worker there,” he wrote in a tweet.
https://twitter.com/GordonGChang/status/1250570464168218624
“This is dangerous,” Pompeo said, adding: “This is not political, you have to know the nature and the pathway that the virus took in order to save lives, and that didn’t happen, they were too slow.”
Pompeo also criticized the WHO for helping spread Chinese propaganda about the origins of the virus and for blindly trusting Beijing when the Communist leadership claimed coronavirus did not spread from human to human. (Related: Entertainment elite prove again they hate America with fundraising concert for ChiCom-sympathizing WHO after Trump cuts funding over coronavirus lies.)
"I don’t think anyone believes that the WHO has shined in its ability to respond and notify the world of the virus. They were slow, they refused to call it a global health pandemic, they rejected closing down international travel,” Pompeo said, noting that President Trump’s decision to withhold WHO’s funding was “not running away” from supporting global health initiatives.
Rather, the organization “has failed, continues to fail in spite of the massive reforms…it is worthy of evaluating whether delivery of resources will deliver the outcomes,” he added.
Pompeo’s criticisms of both China and the WHO likely mean that there won’t be any cooperation from either going forward in terms of Beijing opening up its labs to U.S. scrutiny. But that’s not really the point, either.
What Pompeo is saying is that the U.S. isn’t going to forget what Beijing did to the world anytime soon, and that Washington will keep up pressure on China.
Sources include:
Please contact us for more information.
