Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying. Photo: VCG

What the US is hiding on the origins of the coronavirus? Hua Chunying, spokesperson from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed to clues and facts from academic publications and public reports collected by the Global Times to shed light on the origins of the coronavirus in US labs and urged Washington to open the doors for an investigation on the origins of the virus. 

When asked for comments on a series of pictures which revealed that Fort Detrick’s biolab was under massive construction when COVID-19 hit the US, in addition to numerous media reports that have exposed doubts on the US and the coronavirus origins, Hua said that the international society hopes to find the origins of the coronavirus as soon as possible. However, any presumptions should be avoided in this work. 

She also showed facts and clues collected by media, including the Global Times, on the research of the origins of the coronavirus. 

According to the clues and facts collected by the Global Times on numerous academic publications and public reports in the US media, Fort Detrick has close connections with Ralph Baric and his virus modification technique. 

After decades of tracking coronaviruses, Baric, also known as the “coronavirus Hunter”, developed the technique to cultivate a  virus based on gene fragments of the coronavirus and modify the genes to create new variants with the potential to harm humans. It is possible to engineer a virus without leaving a trace, Baric himself told an Italian media in last September.

The Global Times found that the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), as well as the Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF-Frederick), a research facility of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have long been engaged in research on high-risk viruses, with close strong ties to Baric. 
In May, an article posted online by  the US Military, revealed that Baric had been invited by the US Army Medical Research and Development Command in late April to give a presentation on the immediate history of COVID-19.

Hua said two conclusions can be draw from such reports. The coronavirus developed by Baric has been widely used in those labs, and the US institutes have a bad record on coronavirus research. 

Second, a reporter from the Washington Post close to the US intelligence department wrote in June that the US Congress suspected that the Wuhan Military World Games in 2019 started the spread of COVID-19 because some athletes from Western countries said that they had "gotten sick with COVID-19-like symptoms" after the games and requested that Wuhan be investigated.

Facing all these truths and facts, those who truly care about the virus origins will insist on thorough investigations based on facts and in a scientific and rational way, said Hua. 

Paradoxically, US officials and media outlets remains silent on the doubts and questions that have emerged inside the country on the open letter urging the WHO to investigate Fort Detrick’s biolab, which has gathered more than 25 million signatures, and to the calls for an investigation on the origins of the virus worldwide. Instead, they have made up lies and rumors to attack China and even tried to lead a biased investigation against China, she added.
Hua urged the US to openly open the doors to international experts, just as China did, to carry out and investigation on the virus origins in the US if they are truly obsessed with the alleged lab leak theory. “The result will come out naturally at that time,” Hua said. 

Global Times