China rebuts US' COVID origin probe push: 'Open Fort Detrick & probe July 2019 illness'

In a bizarre rebuttal to US' demand for a 'COVID origin probe', Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Wednesday, demanded a WHO inquiry into an unexplained respiratory illness in July 2019 at Fort Detrick base. China has repeatedly denied that COVID-19 originated at either the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the Wuhan wet markets. This rebuttal comes amid growing calls for a transparent probe into COVID origins at Wuhan.

China: 'Open Fort Detrick base ASAP'

As per reports, the  U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases on Fort Detrick was shut doen due to two breaches of containment halting its high-level research. As per an inspection findings report, the Army laboratory had failed to "implement and maintain containment procedures sufficient to contain select agents or toxins" that were made by operations in biosafety level 3 and 4 laboratories. Fort Detrick hosts several govt biomedical research centers including pathogens like Ebola and smallpox.

Fauci: 'We should continue with investigation'

On Tuesday, US chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci backed the 'next phase of investigation' by the World Health organisation (WHO) into the origins of the virus. Speaking to reporters, Dr. Fauci said that he was not '100% sure of the origin' and it was imperative to look and investigate. Recently, Dr Fauci refuted claims that the American institute (NIAID) headed by him funded labs in Wuhan to carry out research on Coronaviruses. In an interview with Politifact, Fauci called the claims by a US report alleging the USA's involvement in the funding of Wuhan labs as preposterous and stated that whatever the study said is not true. Recently, Republican senator Rand Paul accused the NIH of funding Chinese research into how viruses move from animals to humans, alleging that the 'gain of function' research might have led to the creation of COVID-19.

US Report On NIH Funding PLA-linked Wuhan Lab

A report by the Republicans' House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence suggested that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 infection, was manufactured in a lab in China, against the claimed thesis of natural occurrence. The 21-page unclassified report accessed by Republic Media Network speaks in detail of alleged experiments being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) since 2016, warnings of which had been relayed by the US envoys in China. The report also questions the role of an American institute (NIAID) headed by top medical expert Dr. Anthony Fauci which allegedly funded labs in Wuhan to carry out research on Coronaviruses. 

The committee, which has been examining the growing threat to America posed by the CCP and the Chinese PLA, accuses the Chinese authorities of undermining the investigation into the origins of the COVID-19. Giving a brief timeline of the events, the Republican report has claimed that Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers had been conducting experiments since 2016 which involved RaTG13, the bat coronavirus identified by the WIV in January 2020 as the closest sample to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.