Washington: The White House said there is no definitive conclusion on the origins of COVID-19. “The intelligence and the government are still looking into it,” John Kirby, national security council coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters at his daily White House news conference. There is no definite conclusion, so it is difficult for me to say anything on this.
Kirby was responding to a question on the energy ministry’s findings that a laboratory leak may have caused the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings were first published in The Wall Street magazine over the weekend.
“The president wants facts. He wants the government to bring out those facts and that is what we are trying to do. If we have something to tell that is enough to give concrete information to the American people and Congress, we will certainly do it,” he said.
Kirby said president Joe Biden has tried to prioritise tracing the origins of COVID-19 since taking office, and so has the government’ efforts.
“Right now, there is no consensus in the US government on where COVID-19 actually originated. There is no consensus in the intelligence system. The President believes that it is really important that we continue this work and find out where it originated so that such a pandemic can be better prevented in the future.”
Responding to another question on China, Kirby said one of the things worrying the US about the spy balloon episode is that it was clearly “designed” to spy on potentially sensitive military sites from extreme altitudes.