China Hasn’t Let Outside Scientists Enter Wuhan Lab: US Secretary of State

An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on April 17, 2020. Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

The Chinese Communist Party hasn’t let scientists from around the world into the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is being probed by American officials as a possible source of the CCP virus, according to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“We know that they’ve not permitted the world’s scientists to go into that laboratory to evaluate what took place there, what’s happening there, what’s happening there even as we speak,” Pompeo said during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt.

“We still have not had Western access to that facility so that we can properly evaluate what really has taken off all across the world and how that began.”

American authorities said in January and February that they offered to send public health teams to China to help respond to the outbreak and analyze aspects of the virus, including its transmissibility, but were rebuffed each time. China eventually allowed a World Health Organization team into the country. Two American scientists were part of the team. A report issued jointly by China and the team repeatedly praised the Chinese response.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus, emerged in mainland China last year before spreading around the world, becoming a pandemic. The virus causes COVID-19, a disease that kills a small percentage of patients, especially among the infirm.

Chinese officials early in the outbreak looked into whether the outbreak originated at the Wuhan lab, The Epoch Times found.

Workers are seen next to a cage with mice inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 23, 2017. Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

“We don’t know the answer to the question about the precise origination point,” Pompeo told Hewitt. “But we do know this: We know that the first sightings of this occurred within miles of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We know that this, the history of the facility, first VSL-4 lab where there’s high-end virus research being conducted took place at that site.”

Top American officials in recent days confirmed for the first time that the United States is looking into whether the CCP virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Asked about the theory, President Donald Trump told reporters Friday: “We’re looking at it.”

“A lot of people are looking at it. It seems to make sense,” the president said during the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the White House. “There is a lot of investigation going on and we’re going to find out.”

Chinese officials worked to cover-up the true nature of the virus for months, according to internal documents obtained by The Epoch Times. The World Health Organization, which is closely aligned with China, has drawn increasing criticism from American officials for repeatedly promoting statements from China and ignoring warnings from Taiwan. Trump this week said U.S. funding for the United Nations group was being put on hold, pending an investigation into what happened.

“All I can say is wherever it came from—it came from China, in whatever form—184 countries are suffering because of it. And it’s too bad, isn’t it? It could have been solved very easily when it was just starting,” the president said on Friday.