Everything we know about where Covid-19 originated as China makes bombshell claim after lab leak allegations
Over five years since the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw the nations around the world shut down and our lives change beyond recognition, and China has made new allegations about who was responsible for the deadly virus.
Cast your mind back to November 2019 when the first reports of a 'novel coronavirus' were beginning to emerge from a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Just months later life would change beyond recognition as we entered into a months-long lockdown. For us in the UK, this meant tuning into daily briefings from government ministers, while some banged pans on their doorstep for the NHS and others got really into baking banana bread.
This may all seem like a fever dream now but coronavirus is back in the news once again after China published bombshell allegations which claimed the virus may have originated in the United States.
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According to a new white paper titled 'Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins Tracing: China’s Actions and Stance' Chinese officials allege that 'numerous studies' point to Covid originating overseas.
The report follows years of misinformation about the virus, with many conspiracy theorists claiming Covid was an intentionally engineered 'bio-weapon'.
What do we know about the origins of Covid-19?
The widely accepted theory for the Covid's origins is that it made the jump from animals to humans at a wholesale market in Wuhan in late 2019.
According to a paper published in Science, researchers linked early cases to infected 'bats, foxes, and other live mammals' sold at the market, with traces of the virus being detected on 'animal cages, carts, and drainage grates' in certain stalls.
What has China said about this theory?
Chinese officials have largely disputed the market origin theory, previously floating suggestions that Covid may have been imported through packages of frozen seafood (via Washington Post).
Meanwhile the East Asian country has also been under pressure to share further details in order to fully understand the origins of Covid, with the World Health Organisation calling it a 'moral and scientific imperative'.
"Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics," the WHO added, which prompted a stern response from Chinese officials saying they hadn't held any data back.
Where did the 'lab leak' theory come from?
The argument that Covid-19 was created in a laboratory in China can be traced back to 2021, when the FBI said it was plausible that the virus could've been created by scientists.
This idea has since been widely debated, with a declassified CIA report later stating there was 'any direct evidence' to support the claim, while the US Energy Department revealed they supported the lab theory with 'low confidence'.
The CIA since offered a new assessment of the theory earlier this year, arguing that a 'research-related origin' for the pandemic was more likely than a 'natural origin' while German intelligence services believe there is a '80-90% chance' that Covid was accidentally leaked from a lab.
China has repeatedly denied these claims.
What are China's most recent claims about the origins of Covid?
In a white paper published yesterday (30 April) Chinese officials suggested 'multiple regions in the US recorded positive SARS-CoV-2 test results and other evidence of the virus' before the virus was detected in Wuhan, as well as claiming that America is attempting to 'scapegoat' China.
"The US owes the world an explanation," the white paper continues. "These questionable events all suggest that Covid-19 may have emerged in the US earlier than the US official timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China.
"A thorough and in-depth investigation into the origins of the virus should be conducted in the US."
Topics: World News, China, Health, Coronavirus
Brenna Cooper