© Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty ImagesWuhan Institute of Virology
China's top epidemiologist, Gao Fu, said samples taken from the wholesale market — where the deadly virus was reportedly first passed to humans — failed to show links between animals sold there and the pathogen, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"It now turns out that the market is one of the victims," Gao told state-run media Tuesday.
The director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Wang Yanyi, also shot down accusations that the facility had unleashed the virus during a lab accident.
There's no way it could have leaked from the laboratory because researchers have not studied pathogens similar enough to the coronavirus, he told the state-run China Central Television.
While both officials said they'd ruled out the sites as a possible ground zero, their comments didn't address important issues such as widespread evidence that China initially covered up the severity of the outbreak.
The question of where the coronavirus began has been hotly disputed among Chinese and US officials in recent months, with President Trump dubbing it the "Chinese Virus" and blaming the country for failing to halt its spread. Chinese officials have pointed fingers at the US, with one government spokesman saying the US Army is responsible for the outbreak.
As of Wednesday, more than 5.5 million people had been infected with the coronavirus globally, and the death toll had topped 350,000.
"pushing back against US officials", as if us officials had the truth.
Article from the New York Post, quoting......the New York Post about where the virus started.
" failed to show links", taken from the Wall Street Journal, while the same WSJ wrote that Gao Fu - China's top epidemiologist - RULED OUT a connection with the Wuhan market.
"state-run China Central Television", so bad, and unreliable of course because state- run.
"widespread evidence that China initially covered up the severity of the outbreak", of which evidence there is none.
"more than 5.5 million people... infected with the coronavirus globally, and over 350,000 deaths". Completely innacurate numbers due to wide differences in methodology assessing the infected counting deaths with, and exclusively from, covid.