Five questions the US must answer about COVID-19

Editor's note:

The US has recently enhanced its efforts to manipulate the origin tracing of COVID-19 via political means and done its utmost to frame other countries with unreasonable suspicion. Though the US claims it is trying to figure out the origins of COVID-19, why is it keeping silent on Fort Detrick? Why is the US turning a deaf ear to research results regarding the origin of the novel coronavirus? Is there something the US is trying to hide? If the US is pushing its unwarranted claims about China, we have every reason to ask five questions of the United States about its origin as well.

Question 1: Why did the US close Fort Detrick?

In July 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order to halt research at the Fort Detrick biological lab, but no detailed reasons have been offered.

Coincidentally, shortly before the lab was shut down, a large number of people became ill with respiratory symptoms, ranging from a cough to pneumonia, in two nursing homes in a nearby county in Virginia, about one hour's drive from the research base.

What is the relationship between Fort Detrick and the pneumonia of unknown cause? Why has the US refused to provide explanations concerning the lab? What's the secret behind this?

Question 2: What did the US do at its more than 200 biological labs scattered around the world?

The US has built more than 200 biological laboratories in 25 countries and regions, including Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union, some of which have been home to large outbreaks of infectious diseases.

In 2020, Ukrainian lawmakers issued a statement saying after fifteen US military biological laboratories were opened in Ukraine. In their message Medvedchuk and Kuzmin mentioned the outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases in Ukraine in recent years, which, in their opinion, might be connected with the activity of US laboratories.

In 2009, a virus caused a hotbed of hemorrhagic pneumonia, which claimed 450 lives. In 2011, Ukraine saw an outbreak of cholera, with 33 patients taken to hospital. Three years later another 800 patients were diagnosed with cholera. One year later more than 100 cases of cholera were identified in Nikolayev.

Why has the US built so many biological laboratories in other countries? What's the purpose of locating these laboratories in countries surrounding China and Russia? Do these laboratories meet security standards? Are there hidden dangers of a leak?

Question 3: When and where did the novel coronavirus break out in the US?

Between Dec 13, 2019 and Jan 17, 2020, researchers from the CDC tested more than 7,000 blood samples collected from nine states in the US, 106 of which contained antibodies to the novel coronavirus.

At the beginning of 2020, the US National Institutes of Health collected 24,000 blood samples from multiple locations across the country, and at least nine contained novel coronavirus antibodies.

Robert Redfield, the former director of the CDC, admitted some in the US who were previously thought to have been killed from the flu may have been infected with the novel coronavirus. 

Among the large number of reported influenza patients in the US, how many cases were misdiagnosed and had actually been infected with the novel coronavirus? Where was patient zero in the US? When did the outbreak occur in the US?

Question 4: Who are the Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers who US claimed went to the hospital in November 2019?

On May 23, 2021, the Wall Street Journal cited a US intelligence report saying in November 2019, three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital care due to illnesses.

The report said their symptoms were "consistent with COVID-19", which they claim lends credence to the theory the novel coronavirus leaked from the lab. However, when China asked the US to disclose the names of the three researchers, the US refused to do so. Since the US claimed the source of the information was reliable, why hasn't it announced the names of the three people?

Question 5: Why did the US ignore research regarding the origin of the novel coronavirus?

In March this year, the WHO-China joint mission report clearly concluded lab leak is "extremely unlikely", and there is a broad consensus in the international scientific community to this end.

On July 5, 24 medical experts published an article in scientific journal The Lancet, saying there is currently no scientific evidence to support the claim COVID-19 leaked.

Against this background, why does the US still insist on hyping the claim the virus originated from a Chinese laboratory? Who is politicizing the source of the virus?

Only the US government can answer these questions. Why won't they?