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Sunday, April 26, 2020

Beijing theory: coronavirus came from US lab

Chinese Officials Blame US Army for Coronavirus | The Scientist - Lisa Winter:
March 13, 2020 - "A Chinese official who has a history of attacking the United States online has lent a voice to a conspiracy theory that blames American soldiers for bringing COVID-19 to China.... According to the unfounded accusation, which reports say has been widely shared on the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was introduced to China when 300 US military members arrived in the Wuhan region for the Military World Games in mid-October and infected the local population. None of the servicemembers who made the trip have tested positive for the virus.

"The rumors seemed to begin when Chinese respiratory specialist Zhong Nanshan stated at a February press conference that 'though the COVID-19 was first discovered in China, it does not mean that it originated from China,' planting the seeds of doubt. On Thursday (March 12), Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, took to Twitter, a social platform banned in China, to ask, 'When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!'

"Lijian has also retweeted a link to a known conspiracy site that claims the virus may have originated at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Ft. Detrick in Maryland, which was shut down in August after biosafety lapses with a number of pathogens. The website goes on to speculate that the virus went from Ft. Detrick to e-cigarettes to Hawaii to Wuhan. There is no evidence the pathogens in Maryland ever left the lab and there’s an equal lack of evidence supporting any of the other claims."
Read more: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/chinese-officials-blame-us-army-for-coronavirus-67267

Coronavirus ‘escaped from US lab’, China’s state TV anchor claims | Metro.co.uk - Emma Brazell:
April 21, 2020 - "A Chinese state TV presenter has claimed coronavirus came from the United States rather than China in an online opinion show. An anchor who goes by the name 'Ms V' listed several conspiracy theories during an episode of China View on CGTN to show 'it is clear that the virus in China was transmitted from abroad'. On March 14, the Arabic-speaking host suggested Covid-19 could have escaped from a US lab or have been transported into China during the Military World Games in Wuhan last October – theories that have been denied by researchers. The video ... has received millions of views online....

"Ms V told the camera: ‘The outbreak may be earlier than expected. In September 2019, some Japanese were infected with the new coronavirus after returning from Hawaii, though they had not visited China before. This happened two months before the beginning of the outbreak in China. Shortly after, the CDC shut down the facilities – after claiming that the Fort Detrick Biological Weapons Laboratory had failed to fully prevent the loss of pathogens. Now, all the data related to this lab has disappeared on the internet. The virologist reported he had carefully researched the cases, as well as his Japanese colleague, and they got the same conclusion. ‘It is expected that the new coronavirus has started outbreaks in the United States for a while, and its symptoms were like symptoms of other diseases, so it was easy to hide the truth'....

"Ms V then cited an alleged news report made by Japanese broadcaster Asahi Corp 'indicating the possibility of new cases of coronavirus in the United States among deaths caused by influenza infection and the US government recently recognised this possibility. ‘This news has caused a widespread debate on social media about the possibility of the virus being transmitted to China from abroad during the period of the Military Olympic Games in Wuhan, which was attended by 109 countries, including the United States.'"
Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/21/coronavirus-escaped-us-lab-chinas-state-tv-anchor-claims-12586026/

China Continues to Push Conspiracy Theory That U.S. Was Source of Coronavirus | The New American - James Murphy:
April 24, 2020 - "Shi Yi, a microbiologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, spoke at a press conference on Thursday and complained that the United States had 'not given any public response' to Chinese accusations that the coronavirus pandemic now raging throughout the world did not actually begin in Wuhan, China, but at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Shi's remarks were reported in the Global Times, a subsidiary of the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China....

"The Global Times also advanced the theory that patient zero in Wuhan was actually an American.... 'Some other posts on social media platforms also alleged that a US armed diplomatic driver and cyclist who was in Wuhan in October 2019 for the cycling competition in the Military World Games, could be patient zero for COVID-19 in Wuhan.'

"The accusation that the coronavirus, which was first reported in Wuhan, China, in November of last year, was actually an American virus appears to have originated on Chinese social media prior to being picked up by Chinese government news outlets. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian took the fallacious assertions global by sharing them on Twitter. The Chinese then had their propaganda tool the Global Times push the story about the origin of the virus being a laboratory at Fort Detrick in Maryland....

"Thus far, neither the Chinese government nor any of its scientists have shown one iota of evidence of an American origin of COVID-19."
Read more: https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/asia/item/35548-china-continues-to-push-conspiracy-theory-that-us-was-source-of-chinese-virus

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