Pompeo says 'significant' evidence new coronavirus emerged from Chinese lab

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference at the State Department, in Washington, U.S., April 29, 2020. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday there was "a significant amount of evidence" that the new coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory, but did not dispute U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusion that it was not man-made.

 

"There is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan," Pompeo told ABC's "This Week," referring to the virus that emerged late last year in China and has killed about 240,000 people around the world, including more than 67,000 in the United States.

 

Pompeo then briefly contradicted a statement issued this week by the top U.S. spy agency that said the virus did not appear to be man-made or genetically modified. That statement undercut conspiracy theories promoted by anti-China activists and some supporters of President Donald Trump who suggest it was developed in a Chinese government biological weapons laboratory.

 

"The best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point," Pompeo said. When the interviewer pointed out that was not the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, Pompeo backtracked, saying, "I've seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they've got it wrong."

 

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on Pompeo's comments.

 

Thursday's report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it concurred with "the wide scientific consensus" that the disease was not man-made.

 

U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reporting and analysis have said for weeks that they do not believe Chinese scientists developed the coronavirus in a government biological weapons lab from which it then escaped.

 

Rather, they have said they believe it was either introduced through human contact with wildlife at a meat market in the central city of Wuhan, or could have escaped from one of two Wuhan government laboratories believed to be conducting civilian research into possible biological hazards.

 

Pompeo on Thursday said it was not known whether the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a meat market, or somewhere else. Trump said the same day that he was confident it may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but he declined to describe the evidence.

 

(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-04

 

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And I might add this has absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming election and is not an attempt to deflect from the pathetic initial response from Potus resulting in thousands of deaths.

It doesn't need to be 'man made' or 'genetically modified' to escape a research lab.

 

Research labs do research on dangerous things all the time, if the lab is not properly secure and some one screws up then things could leak.

 

So the suggestion that it leaked from the lab which to me looks more likely by the day has nothing to do with what they were doing with the virus in the lab and certainly doesn't contradict intel suggestions that it's not man made or modified in the lab.

 

They worked on this s*** during 4 years. The US was funding them because they cannot do animal testing in the states, but they can in China. I will be very surprised the original virus from 2016 leaked, and not the one they were using during last autumn.

Edited May 3, 20206 yr by BigDaddy66
typo and form

They know it didn't come from eating animals bought at the "wet market". They've known that for months, because nearly half of the first cases of infection had no contact with the market or anyone that had gone to the market, so there was no way they could have been infected by it (or anything sold in it). (As far as they've been able to determine any ways.)

An American researcher recently told a reporter (Washington Post I think it was) that he thinks the virus may even have originated in a different city (in China) because samples of the virus in that other city appear more "primitive" than the ones from Wuhan. (It doesn't appear that anyone else has made the same conclusion or that the guy has submitted a paper on it so no "peer review" of his conclusions either.)

I kind of wonder now if Pompeo made an innocent error (or a deliberate one) when he said there was significant evidence that the virus came from a Chinese lab (and then realized his error and made the statement about not disputing what the Intelligence Committee report said). 
It could be that the Administration is playing games and using their Intelligence agencies to say one thing, even though they know it isn't true, while sitting on actual evidence they don't want to make public yet.

Pompeo may have seen some other evidence and then made his statement deliberately (because he knew the Administration was trying to keep it under wraps and he didn't agree with that) or he just let it "slip out" inadvertently (which would again suggest he's seen something that he wasn't supposed to talk about, let it slip by accident and then contradicted himself by standing by the conclusions of the Intelligence Committee report).

I suspect there is a lot of "politics" going on behind the scenes. Trump really wants a 2nd term but it sounds like his polling numbers are taking a beating and at this point there's not much chance he'd win (even with "Russian" help or an FBI Director playing politics).
He needs something big and flashy he can use to convince everyone to vote him in again. Right now, he doesn't have anything.

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

So the suggestion that it leaked from the lab which to me looks more likely by the day

Funny how just a couple of days ago, saying such a thing would have you branded a "conspiracy theorist". It would require the mother of all consequence for the virus to have originated a stones throw away from the research institute, rather than having leaked from inside it. Rather like if the Russians claimed Chernobyl didn't melt down but a nuclear powered UFO crashed next to it. 

 Thanks to the GOP for riding China hard here. They must be punished for their lies and cover-up, it is pure evil behavior. And the media that defied all logic to insist that only the lost bat 1,000km from its cave in another provice which bit a pangolin which bit a human just outside the bat coronavirus research facility bla-di-bla narrative - well - it's shameful.

 

As always there is "significant evidence" but wont reveal it!!  Its a good thing that Pinocchio is only a fairy tale otherwise these guys would really be in trouble. 

I wouldn't trust this toadie as far as I could throw him, and have you SEEN how YUGE he is?

gee, thanks mike.  i'm convinced!

China Lied, 240,380 have Died.

 

They should be made to pay! Whether the virus originated from the Wuhan wet market or an accidental escape from the lab.

 

China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak in an “assault on international transparency’’ that cost tens of thousands of lives, according to a dossier prepared by concerned Western governments on the COVID-19 contagion.

 

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/coronavirus/bombshell-dossier-lays-out-case-against-chinese-bat-virus-program/news-story/55add857058731c9c71c0e96ad17da60

 

 

 

 

An off topic trolling post and the replies have been removed. 

42 minutes ago, Tug said:

That is imo what trump and his minions are trying to pedal to deflect public option away from trumps inept reaction to the carona virus no more no less at a time we all should be working together to defeat this menace 

Do you have any evidence whatsoever to support your statement? 

You consistent name calling and labeling of  groups is a perfect example of  not working together.

Your post presents absolutely no facts, and it is obvious that proof reading and spell check  have not been employed, so why would we assume you have spent the time to actually do some fact checking or research?

if you are actually sincere about people working together a good start would be with you to stop your name calling and labeling, and maybe even start using some references and facts to support your arguments! 

 

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

It doesn't need to be 'man made' or 'genetically modified' to escape a research lab.

 

Research labs do research on dangerous things all the time, if the lab is not properly secure and some one screws up then things could leak.

 

So the suggestion that it leaked from the lab which to me looks more likely by the day has nothing to do with what they were doing with the virus in the lab and certainly doesn't contradict intel suggestions that it's not man made or modified in the lab.

 

The first patient who got it. The doctor who found out treating him in early December was told to shut up and made house bound. What's the betting the sick guy either worked at the lab or bought '2nd hand' meat at the market!!!????????????????????????????????

Why was Donald Trump so careful in always emphasizing that it was not man-made but escaped from a lab but Pompeo here appears to say it was 'man-made'?

 

He then backtracked, just silly mistake?

You can't get more reliable than coronavirusestoday.com: https://www.coronavirustoday.com/sars-cov-2

 

"Based on the genome sequence and properties of the virus, there is no basis to suspect the virus was engineered," said Prof. Richard H. Ebright, the laboratory director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University. “Because the bat coronavirus RaTG13 and closely related bat coronaviruses also are known to have been present in a lab," he said, specifically in the coronavirus collection at Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

 

Although the evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not a purposefully manipulated virus, it is currently impossible to prove or disprove the other theories of its origin.

 

The RaTG13 Yunnan bat virus is very close to CoV-SARS2, far from original SARS. We do not know how close the 1000s of other Wuhan lab viruses are to Cov-SARS2 because the info has been covered up and possibly destroyed by now.

21 minutes ago, Logosone said:

Why was Donald Trump so careful in always emphasizing that it was not man-made but escaped from a lab but Pompeo here appears to say it was 'man-made'?

 

He then backtracked, just silly mistake?

The mark of a good liar is an impeccable memory.  However it is difficult to find a group of liars all with good memories.

1 hour ago, TopDeadSenter said:

Funny how just a couple of days ago, saying such a thing would have you branded a "conspiracy theorist".

<Snip>

 

Not true, only claiming it was set loose on purpose would have awarded you the designation conspiracy theorist.

And rather hilariously this pumped up sycophant to the toddler in chief is all wrapped around the axle about the Chinese blocking investigation attempts and refusing to divulge information. Oh the irony. If only there were enough brain cells that functioned in the white coloured tanning salon that passes for the residence of a leader to realise that. Queue the trump apologists............

Im not a trump fan but all the breadcrumbs lead to Wuhan Lab.  Gain of Function experinments simulate natural evoluation and are indistinct from it.  The infamous Nature Medicine article that states it wasnt genetically engineered graciously omitted this fact which was harshly criticised by Ebright (A foremost virologist) and others.  Why you may ask?  Well the authors were part of the NIH funding in 2017 for study of Cov virus at Wuhan Lab to include Gain of Function Experinments.  Thats why all breadcrumbs are starting to show a very strong path.

He’s lying to give Trump cover this administration has 0 credibility 

I think previous related threads have already discussed this in detail. The result being that there are variety of ways that experimental products and waste can escape laboratories ranging from deliberate actions to lack of documentation for disposal.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point," Pompeo said. When the interviewer pointed out that was not the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies, Pompeo backtracked, saying, "I've seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reasonto believe that they've got it wrong."

So basically you have no idea what you are talking about. The perfect trump loyalist. 
 

maga

Probably the worst secretary of state the US has ever appointed.

Is there anything redeemable about China at this point?

7 minutes ago, Tug said:

He’s lying to give Trump cover this administration has 0 credibility 

You chose to believe the Chinese, where if their lips are moving they are lying?  Regardless of how you feel about Trump, no need to 'tug' on China's nut-sack.

Is that Alex Jones in the picture?

6 minutes ago, RoadWarrior371 said:

You chose to believe the Chinese, where if their lips are moving they are lying?  Regardless of how you feel about Trump, no need to 'tug' on China's nut-sack.

You chose not to believe the pentagon and virus experts based on the fact you dont like china.

22 minutes ago, Jimbo2014 said:

Im not a trump fan but all the breadcrumbs lead to Wuhan Lab.  Gain of Function experinments simulate natural evoluation and are indistinct from it.  The infamous Nature Medicine article that states it wasnt genetically engineered graciously omitted this fact which was harshly criticised by Ebright (A foremost virologist) and others.  Why you may ask?  Well the authors were part of the NIH funding in 2017 for study of Cov virus at Wuhan Lab to include Gain of Function Experinments.  Thats why all breadcrumbs are starting to show a very strong path.

The famous study you refer to was done by several very able geneticists, who were also among the ones who confirmed that the Chinese genetic study about two strains with one being more virulent was flawed.

 

In this study, which I link below, the authors state a man-made origin is extremely unlikely and the analysis looks very convincing.

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9

 

My impression was that Trump's argument was that the virus was not man made, but was harvested from bats in a Chinese lab and then escaped.

 

Of course we have seen no evidence of this yet.

"My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."

Pangolin deservers apology and compensation. Or there will be libel sue.