China Responds to US Energy Department Conclusion on COVID Origins

China Responds to US Energy Department , Conclusion on COVID Origins.

On February 28, China said it has been "open and transparent" regarding the origins of COVID-19, amid lingering questions of how the pandemic began.

On February 28, China said it has been "open and transparent" regarding the origins of COVID-19, amid lingering questions of how the pandemic began.

Associated Press reports that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said with "low confidence" that the pandemic was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019.

According to the Energy Department report, which has yet to be made public, the pandemic started with a leak of the virus from a lab in Wuhan.

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In response, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning Mao said that China had , “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research.”.

Politicizing the issue of virus tracing will not smear China but will only damage the U.S.’s own credibility, Mao Ning Mao, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, via Associated Press.

Politicizing the issue of virus tracing will not smear China but will only damage the U.S.’s own credibility, Mao Ning Mao, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, via Associated Press.

AP reports that the comments by China come amid ongoing questions about how the virus, which has killed over 6.8 million people, originated.

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Meanwhile, other members of the U.S. intelligence community reportedly disagree with the Energy Department conclusion of a lab leak.

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There is just not an intelligence community consensus, John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, via Associated Press.

'The Wall Street Journal' first reported on the DOE assessment, noting that the classified report was based on new intelligence.

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AP reports that the DOE oversees a network of labs across the U.S