France points to lack of facts to back up US claims

Monitoring Desk

PARIS: This week, US media outlets reported on alleged lax biosafety and security measures at Wuhan’s P4 laboratory, with some accusing China of attempting to “cover up” the outbreak, supposedly after the COVID-19 virus leaked from the lab.

France does not possess any facts to corroborate recent US media claims on a potential link between the new coronavirus and the work of the Wuhan P4 biolab, a source in the Elysee told Reuters on Friday.

“We would like to make clear that there is to this day no factual evidence corroborating the information recently circulated in the US press about a link between the origins of COVID-19 and the work of the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, China,” the source in the French presidency said.

Earlier, US media outlets including the Washington Post and Fox News reported, citing sources, that the P4 lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology could be the point of origin for the new coronavirus.

Commenting on these explosive allegations, US officials said that Washing-ton was in the process of carrying out “a full investigation” into how the virus was spread. In his daily press briefing on Wednesday, Trump said “more and more, we’re hearing the story.”  On Friday, Pence said the US would be pressing Beijing to let foreign scientists into the Wuhan Institute “so that we can determine precisely where this virus began. (Sputnik)