DESTRUCTION OF COVID-19 VIRUS IN ILLEGAL CHINA LABS ADMITTED

China has confirmed that it had ordered unauthorized laboratories to destroy samples of COVID-19 in the early stage of the outbreak but justified it for biosafety reasons, a reason that would surely send tongues wagging at the White House.

Writing for the South China Morning Post on Friday, May 15, 2020, Zhuang Pinghui said the admission came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly said Beijing declined to provide virus samples taken from patients when the contagion began in China late last year and that Chinese authorities had destroyed early samples.

Liu Dengfeng, an official with the National Health Commission’s science and education department, said this was done at unauthorized labs to “prevent the risk to laboratory biological safety and prevent secondary disasters caused by unidentified pathogens.”

“The remarks made by some US officials were taken out of context and intended to confuse,” he said at a briefing in Beijing. Liu said comments by some US officials “were taken out of context and intended to confuse” but stressed the pathogen causing the disease was still being identified when the order was issued. #COVID19