澳洲As Trump, China trade barbs, a Fort Detrick laboratory finds

在澳大利亚房产房屋



Where the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 first originated is a question on many minds, from officials in the United States and other countries to epidemiologists looking to track the virus that resulted in the current pandemic.

The question has led to China and the United States trading barbs. Ask President Donald Trump, and he’ll probably say SARS-CoV-2 likely originated in China where the first cases of COVID-19 appeared. He and other U.S. officials claim that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory, according to the Associated Press. World Health Organization emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan, quoted in the article, said the claim is speculative.

But ask Chinese officials and some Chinese scientists, their answer will hit closer to home.For months now, even before Maryland and Frederick County announced its first cases of the respiratory disease, Chinese officials have suggested that the coronavirus was created at Fort Detrick.

The first conspiracy claim was that soldiers who trained near Fort Detrick brought the disease with them during the World Military Games in October. But that is not true, according to the U.S. Department of Defense’s rumor control website.

In responding to questions about the claim, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said it is “completely ridiculous and it’s irresponsible” that someone from the Chinese government would make such a claim.

Esper and other administration officials “repeatedly denounced the Chinese government’s efforts to deflect responsibility for downplaying the threat early on, as well as its lack of transparency during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, as being irresponsible and unhelpful with combating the pandemic the world is facing today,” according to the site.

But now the conspiracy theorists and Chinese officials have turned their attention to another target: the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases on Fort Detrick.

The conspiracy specifically points to the shutdown of biosafety level 3 and 4 work at USAMRIID by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July 2019, suggesting that the laboratory was responsible for the virus.

“That is an absolutely false claim,” U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command spokeswoman Lori Salvatore wrote in an email to The News-Post. “USAMRIID does not take part in offensive research.”
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