POMPEO: LINK TO WUHAN LAB
Claims ‘enormous evidence’
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that substantial evidence exists indicating the coronavirus began in a lab in China, and that the ruling Communist Party did everything it could to keep the outbreak under wraps.
“There’s enormous evidence that that’s where this began. We’ve said from the beginning that this was a virus that originated in Wuhan, China. We took a lot of grief for that from the outset. But I think the whole world can see now,” he told ABC News’ “This Week.”
“Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories. These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab.”
After the first cases were reported in Wuhan in December, Pompeo said, Beijing began a “disinformation” campaign that “created enormous risk” worldwide.
“China behaved like authoritarian regimes do, attempted to conceal and hide and confuse. It employed the World Health Organization as a tool to do the same. These are the kind of things that have now presented this enormous crisis, an enormous loss of life and tremendous economic cost all across the globe,” Pompeo said.
There are now nearly 3.5 million cases of coronavirus around the world. More than 245,000 people have died from the disease.
Asked by “This Week” host Martha Raddatz whether he believed the virus was man-made or genetically modified, Pompeo initially claimed “experts” had said it was man-made.
But Raddatz pointed out that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the scientific consensus is that COVID-19 was not man-made or genetically modified.
“That’s right. I agree with that. Yeah. I’ve seen their analysis. I’ve seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly. I have no reason to doubt that that is accurate,” he said.
Pompeo said it still hasn’t been determined whether China intentionally released the virus or if it was a lab accident.
“I think there’s a lot to know. But I can say this: We’ve done our best to try and answer all of those questions. We tried to get a team in there. The World Health Organization tried to get a team in there. And they have failed,” he said.
“No one’s been allowed to go to this lab or any of the other laboratories — there are many labs inside of China. This risk remains.”
Also on Sunday, intelligence documents seen by The Associated Press showed that US officials believe China covered up the extent of the outbreak and stocked up on medical supplies.
Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January, according to a four-page Department of Homeland Security intelligence report dated May 1.
The DHS analysis says that while downplaying the severity of the coronavirus, China increased imports and decreased exports of medical supplies.
It attempted to cover up doing so by “denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data,” the analysis states.
The report also says China held off informing WHO that the coronavirus “was a contagion” for much of January so it could order medical supplies from abroad — and that its imports of face masks and surgical gowns and gloves increased sharply.
Those conclusions are based on the 95 percent probability that China’s changes in import-export behavior were not within normal range, according to the report.
We’ve said from the beginning that this was a virus that originate din Wuhan, China. We too ka lot of grief for that . . . But I think the whole world can see now.
— Mike Pompeo