'Will continue to press China': White House demands 'transparent' probe into COVID origin

“We will continue to press China," said the White House on May 26 while calling for a “transparent” and evidence-based global investigation into COVID-19 and its origin. In a press briefing on Wednesday, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the United States will continue mounting pressure on China, where COVID-19 was first discovered in December 2019, for cooperation into a multilateral investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. She also said that the US will corner the Asian country into getting the required access to “get to the bottom of a virus.”

White House deputy press secretary said, “Importantly, we will continue to — pushing for a stronger, multilateral investigation into the origins of the virus in China."

"And we will continue to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation with the needed access to get to the bottom of a virus that’s taken more than 3 million lives across the globe and, critically, to share information and lessons that will help us all prevent future pandemics,” she added.

‘China wasn’t transparent enough’

In the same press briefing, Jean-Pierre noted that “China wasn’t transparent enough,” reiterating the similar doubt that most nations across the globe have flagged since the beginning of the pandemic. White House deputy press secretary also addressed how China failed to provide the required access to the Wuhan lab and cooperate with the scientific investigators while referring to the World Health Organization (WHO) experts who went to Wuhan, the Chinese province also recognised as the first hotspot of the novel coronavirus.

Jean-Pierre said, “China wasn’t transparent enough.  We have been saying that for a very long time that China needed to provide more access to the lab, cooperate more fully with the scientific investigators and we don’t think that they have met that standard.”

While stressing the need to get more understanding of the virus, the White House official said, “Look, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken, I think, 1.3 million lives globally; 600,000 American lives, about.  And it’s imperative that we get to the bottom of just where the pandemic originated — not just for the purposes of understanding this pandemic, but the pandemics to come.”

IMAGE: AP