There are many speculations about how the coronavirus pandemic started, and where exactly it came from. And according to a new report, U.S. Embassy officials were warned back in January 2018 about "inadequate safety" at he Wuhan Institute of Virology lab. While not confirmed, this once again raises concerns that the Chinese labs were in fact the beginning source of the novel coronavirus.
"There is a credible alternative view (to the zoonotic theory) based on the nature of the virus. Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is a laboratory in Wuhan," a member of the U.K. government's emergency committee of senior officials said on Sunday.
U.S. Embassy officials had warned Washington two years ago that the lab in Wuhan had posed severe health risks, as well as a serious management weakness.
"During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory," the Jan.19, 2018 cable, written by two officials who met with the WIV scientists, said.
But despite reports, top U.S. officials are still standing by their claims that the origins of the virus did not come from a lab.
"And if I could just be clear, there is nothing to that," Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Friedrichs told Fox News. "Someone asked me if I was worried. That is not something that I'm worried about. I think, you know, right now what we're concerned about is how do we treat people who are sick, how do we prevent people from getting sick. But no, I am not worried about this as a bioweapon."
Read the full report on The Washington Post.