White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Thursday urged China to share the medical records of nine people who suffered from a coronavirus-like illness before the pandemic began, saying they could help determine whether the virus could have come from a laboratory.
Read also: Covid-19: the Wuhan P4 laboratory returns to the heart of the controversy
The theory of the laboratory leak, long considered improbable, has been revived in recent weeks after the publication in the US press of information claiming that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been hospitalized in November 2019 with symptoms. compatible with Covid-19, but also with those of a “
seasonal infection
”.
In an interview published Thursday, June 3 in the
Financial Times
, Anthony Fauci said that these medical records could answer crucial questions about the origins of the Covid-19 in Wuhan, where a pandemic started which made more than 3.6 million deaths in the world.
"
I would like to see the medical records of the three people who would have fallen ill in 2019,
" said the immunologist.
"
Did they really get sick, and if so, from what?"
"
China accuses Washington of spreading "
conspiracy
"
theories
The researchers having visited a cave housing bats in the Chinese province of Yunnan, the immunologist claimed that it was "
entirely conceivable that the origin of Covid-19 was in this cave, and that 'it has started to spread naturally or has passed through the laboratory.
"In May, Anthony Fauci said that while many specialists"
think it is more likely
"that Covid-19 is"
a natural event
", they have"
no 100% response
".
China, which fiercely fights the laboratory's hypothesis, accused Washington of disseminating "
conspiracy
"
theories
and denied information on the hospitalization of researchers in Wuhan.
The thesis of a natural origin, considered the most likely by a joint study of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese who visited Wuhan earlier this year, argues that the virus is appeared in bats before being transmitted to humans, probably via another animal.
Read also: Covid-19: Does the WHO really have the means to investigate the origin of the virus?
On Friday, June 4, the Chinese Foreign Ministry relied on the findings of this team to reject statements by Anthony Fauci, citing baseless statements that the virus first appeared in the US military laboratory in Fort Detrick.
Asked about the possibility of Beijing sharing the medical records, the ministry referred to a statement from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in March. "
We hope that people who disbelieve conspiracy theories, who respect the facts and who respect the truth can find factual answers in this statement,
" said Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry. Last week, President Joe Biden asked US intelligence services to produce a report within 90 days on the origin of the Covid-19.
