World Health Organization investigators should not expect top U.S. diplomats will take their findings about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic at face value, according to a State Department official.
WHO officials think it “extremely unlikely” that the contagion leaked out of a virology lab in Wuhan, China, where the novel coronavirus was first detected. Outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared last month that Washington “has reason to believe that several researchers” at the lab caught the virus months well before it was revealed publicly, but aides to now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken have distanced him from the previous administration while taking care not to dispute the organization explicitly.
“The jury’s still out,” State Department spokesman Ned Price replied Tuesday when asked if Chinese officials provided enough information for the WHO to form a reliable conclusion. “I wouldn’t want to be conclusive yet before we’ve seen the report. I think it’s premature for us to go there.”
“Rather than rush to conclusions that may be motivated by anything other than science, we want to see where that data leaves us, where that science leaves us,” Price said. “And our conclusions will be predicated on that.”
Price’s comments followed those of White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who told reporters that the Biden administration wants to deploy experts from America and make its own judgment.
The State Department documents that raised the prospect of a laboratory accident likewise acknowledged “the virus could have emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals.” Price emphasized that point, which leaves open the possibility that Blinken will accept the WHO’s conclusions without directly contradicting the previous administration’s statements. Yet, he also emphasized that the United States will vet WHO findings for any errors.
“We will work with our partners, and also draw on information collected and analyzed by our own intelligence community, to evaluate the report once we’ve received it,” he said.
Chinese officials, who have conducted a series of disinformation campaigns about the pandemic over the last year, want the WHO to continue by investigating whether the pandemic originated in the U.S. rather than China.
“I don’t think there is any reasonable person who would argue that the coronavirus originated elsewhere,” Price said, dismissing that idea.
The Biden administration has started its term with some tough talk on China, mostly on trade and security issues. Notably, Biden has yet to speak by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
