Vita huset stöder teorin om labbläcka bakom covid-19 | NTD NYHETER

The website lists five reasons why it is reasonable to believe in the theory of a lab leak. For the first, the virus shows biological properties that do not occur naturally in the animal world. For the second, available data indicates that all cases of COVID-19 originate from a single transmission to humans without any spread between different species, which differs from previous pandemics. For the third, the Wuhan lab is located in the same city where the first known cases of COVID-19 were reported. The laboratory has conducted research in the so-called gain-of-function, a highly controversial research area where the virus is modified to be more contagious for humans. In addition, the US government has criticized the Wuhan lab for lack of safety routines. For the fourth, researchers who worked at the Wuhan lab became infected with COVID-like symptoms already in the fall of 2019. A relative of one of the patients died in November of the same year. A month later, COVID-19 was discovered on the city's wet market. And here is the decisive detail. The Wuhan lab and the wet market are only 12 km apart. And finally, the White House believes that if the virus really had a natural origin, there would be concrete evidence in this regard. But there is not. Seen from a broader perspective, China has largely blocked international investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and refused to publicize data from the laboratory. In 2023, the former head of China's public health agency, Gao Fu, commented that he could not rule out the theory of a lab leak and even called it logical. The CIA's newly appointed chief, John Ratcliffe, declassified federal evaluations of the origin of COVID-19 just days after he took office. These investigations, which were started by the then National Security Advisor in the White House, Jake Sullivan, also support the theory of a possible lab leak.