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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Mike Pompeo pushes new allegation of China covering up origin of COVID-19
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a news conference at the US Department of State in Washington on March 25 last year. Photo: AFP
/ AFP, WASHINGTON and NEW DELHI
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said that there were COVID-19-like illnesses among staff at a Chinese virology institute in autumn 2019, casting further blame on Beijing as health experts arrived in the country to probe the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins.
The top US diplomat in a statement urged the WHO team that landed on Thursday in Wuhan, where COVID-19 was first detected, to “press the government of China” on the “new information.”
“The United States government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses,” Pompeo said.
He said this contradicted reports that none of the staff at the institute had contracted COVID-19 or related viruses.
“Beijing continues today to withhold vital information that scientists need to protect the world from this deadly virus, and the next one,” Pompeo said.
COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 and has since billowed out across the world, killing more than 2 million people so far, infecting tens of millions and eviscerating the global economy.
The WHO has said establishing the pathway of the virus from animals to humans is essential to preventing future outbreaks.
The outgoing administration of US President Donald Trump has consistently blamed China for COVID-19, which has killed 392,000 people in the US, with the president routinely calling it the “China virus.”
In related news, India yesterday began one of the world’s biggest coronavirus vaccine programs, a colossal and complex task compounded by safety worries, shaky infrastructure and public skepticism.
The world’s second-most populous nation hopes to inoculate about 300 million of its 1.3 billion people by July — a number equal to almost the entire US population.
Health workers, people over 50 and those deemed at high risk are prioritized to receive one of two approved vaccines, although one has yet to complete clinical trials.
On day one, about 300,000 people were to receive the first of two doses, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching the program virtually in New Delhi.
Authorities said they are drawing on their experience with elections and child immunization programs for polio and tuberculosis in rolling out the vaccine.
About 150,000 staff in 700 districts have been specially trained, and India has held several national dry runs involving mock transportation of vaccines.
Regular child inoculations are a “much smaller game” and vaccinating against COVID-19 would be “deeply challenging,” said Satyajit Rath from the National Institute of Immunology.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
