The News
The U.S. will “never” know the true origin of COVID-19 “unless China opens up some more,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday.
Speaking at the Semafor World Economic Summit, Becerra declined to agree with FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assessment that COVID most likely originated in a Chinese government-controlled lab.
“We’re all still trying to figure this out. It would really help if China were more transparent,” Becerra said, adding that it’s hard to agree with Wray’s assessment because “we don’t have all the data.”
“We’ve seen a lot of data, but not all the data. It’s speculation still. Everyone’s guessing. Why should I guess, especially when you deal with medicine and science? It’s better not to guess, because lives are at stake.”
China last year pushed back on the notion that it hasn’t been transparent in the COVID origins investigation, after a U.S. Department of Energy report said with “low confidence” that the pandemic began with a lab leak from China.
Responding to Becerra’s comments on Thursday, the Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told Semafor that “China has demonstrated a scientific, professional, serious and responsible attitude, taking the lead in conducting global origins tracing cooperation with the WHO and twice inviting WHO experts to China to conduct origins tracing research.”
“Tracing the origins of the virus is a scientific issue that should not be politicized,” Liu added.
Morgan Chalfant contributed to this report.