White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki dodged a question on Thursday about whether the White House has seen any circumstantial evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t originate from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
Republican Members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a few of the following points on Thursday in a report about the origins of the pandemic:
- China’s history of research lab leaks resulting in infections.
- Warnings from U.S. diplomats in China as early as 2017 that the Wuhan lab was conducting dangerous research on coronaviruses without following necessary safety protocols, risking the accidental outbreak of a pandemic.
- Gain of Function research being conducted at the Wuhan lab that made coronaviruses more infectious in humans.
- Several researchers at Wuhan lab were sickened with COVID-19-like symptoms in fall 2019.
- The involvement in the Wuhan lab of the Chinese military, which has a documented biological weapons program.
- Multiple indications of attempts by Beijing to cover up the true circumstances of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Has the White House seen any circumstantial evidence that it did not originate in a lab?” a reporter asked Psaki.
“Well, I think, first, I would caution you against disproving a negative there — which is never the responsible approach, in our view, when it come — when it comes to getting to the bottom of the root causes of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the United States,” she responded. “I will say that our view continues to be that there needs to be an independent, transparent investigation — and that needs to happen with the cooperation and data provided from the Chinese government. We don’t have enough information at this point to make an assessment.”
WATCH:
White House Press Sec. Psaki says that there needs to be an independent transparent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus in response to a question suggesting that it may have originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. pic.twitter.com/hK41tVHGtP
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 21, 2021
TRANSCRIPT:
REPORTER: Thank you, Jen. A couple of topics quickly. First, House Republicans are claiming that they have “significant circumstantial evidence” that COVID-19 originated in a lab. Has the White House seen any circumstantial evidence that it did not originate in a lab?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I think, first, I would caution you against disproving a negative there — which is never the responsible approach, in our view, when it come — when it comes to getting to the bottom of the root causes of a pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. I will say that our view continues to be that there needs to be an independent, transparent investigation — and that needs to happen with the cooperation and data provided from the Chinese government. We don’t have enough information at this point to make an assessment.
REPORTER: And part of the reason some of these lawmakers say that is, is because China is not cooperating right now. At what point would President Biden call President Xi and say, “We’ve got 587,883 dead Americans. We’re just trying to figure out if this happened — if COVID originated in one of your labs. Let us in”?
PSAKI: Well, I would say that we have made that call publicly many times. We have conveyed that privately. And we have certainly communicated that they were not transparent from the beginning; that’s not acceptable. There’s an opportunity now, in the next stage of this effort, for them to be transparent, to participate in an international investigation that can bring a conclusion to the origins and provide information that we — Republicans, Democrats, everyone in this country — would love to have access to.