WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has alleged that China may have known of the new coronavirus as early as November, renewing accusations that Beijing has not been transparent.
“You’ll recall that the first cases of this were known by the Chinese government maybe as early as November, but certainly by mid-December,” Pompeo said in an interview. “They were slow to identify this for anyone in the world, including the World Health Organization.”
Pompeo said the United States still wanted more information from China including the original sample of the SARS-CoV-2 virus detected in the metropolis of Wuhan.
“This issue of transparency is important not only as a historical matter to understand what happened back in November and December and January, but it’s important even today,” Pompeo said. “This is still impacting lots of lives here in the United States and, frankly, around the world.”
China has closely guarded information of the virus and detained whistleblowers. The first official acknowledgement came on December 31 when authorities in Wuhan reported mysterious cases of pneumonia.
Michael Ryan, emergencies director at the World Health Organisation, said the UN body first spoke of an event in Wuhan on January 4 and provided “detailed information” the following day to all member countries.
President Donald Trump’s administration has harshly criticised both China and the WHO, blaming them for not stopping the illness that has killed more than 180,000 people worldwide.
Pompeo has previously not ruled out that the virus originated in a virology laboratory in Wuhan and has demanded international access to it. China has dismissed the theory and its scientists say that the virus probably was transmitted to humans at a meat market in Wuhan that sold exotic animals.
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