China is making headlines for all the wrong reasons today.
US intelligence and national security officials say the United States government is considering the possibility that the novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory rather than a market, though sources say it is premature to draw any conclusions.
This is one of several theories being pursued by investigators as they attempt to determine the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. The US does not believe the virus was associated with bioweapons research.
But intelligence officials are investigating whether the virus originated when someone was infected in a Chinese lab through an accident or poor handling of materials and may have then infected others.
“Someone had to have known”
In related news, an Associated Press article notes that the Chinese government waited six crucial days after determining they were facing a pandemic before warning the public. During that time, the city of Wuhan, at the epicenter of the disease, hosted a mass banquet for thousands of people, and millions began traveling through the Lunar New Year.
By the time President Xi Jinping warned the public on January 20, more than three thousand people had been infected during almost a week of public silence.
Other experts note that the Chinese government may have waited on warning the public to avoid mass hysteria and that it did act quickly in private during that time. But the Associated Press claims that “China’s rigid controls on information, bureaucratic hurdles and a reluctance to send bad news up the chain of command muffled early warnings.”
White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told ABC’s The View yesterday, “I think once this is over, we’ll be able to look back and see, ‘did China and the WHO say and do everything to alert…
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