20.04.2020, Beijing.
There is no evidence pointing to the artificial origin of the novel coronavirus, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a briefing in Beijing on April 20.
“It is the established general opinion of WHO and scientists and professionals in public health in the vast majority of countries that there is no evidence showing the virus came from a lab,” Geng Shuang pointed out. “The origin of the virus is a matter of science that should be left to scientists and medical professionals. It should not be politicized.”
On Friday, French virologist and medicine Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier suggested that COVID-19 had been developed in a laboratory during a search for a vaccine against AIDS.
Before that, on April 15, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview that the US administration knows “that the virus originated in Wuhan”, and that the city is home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In response, another spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhao Lijian called for treating the issue as a serious scientific question, where necessary to “heed and respect science-based and professional views.”
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
