Atlantic Council fellow: Likely Covid-19 came from Wuhan lab

The U.S. should be playing a larger role in getting to the bottom of the theory that Covid-19 first leaked from a virology lab in Wuhan, China, Atlantic Council senior fellow Jamie Metzl told CNBC on Monday.

“Right now, the World Health Assembly is meeting, and the United States should be doing everything possible with our allies to demand a comprehensive investigation into Covid origins with full access to all the records, samples, and personnel in China and beyond,” Metzl, a former national security official in the Clinton administration, said on “The News with Shepard Smith.”

“If China wants to thumb its nose at the rest of the world, in spite of more than 3 million people dead, let them make that statement,” he said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that determining the origins of Covid-19 is up to an international investigation led by the World Health Organization, and that the U.S. cannot lead a probe on its own.

Metzl organized last year a group of scientists and academics to call for a deeper investigation into Covid’s origins. He told host Shepard Smith that it’s “critically important” to find answers about the pandemic’s origins because if we don’t, it puts everyone “unnecessarily at risk.”

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

A previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report found that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital care after falling ill “with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness,” The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, quoting from the report.

The World Health Organization has repeatedly said the virus most likely jumped from bats to humans through another animal. It has described the theory that the virus leaked from a lab as “extremely unlikely,” but has not ruled it out. Metzl said he thinks the theory is a “likely hypothesis.”

“Why would you have a bat coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan and not in southern China, where the horseshoe bats are located? And what we know that they do have in Wuhan, is China’s only level 4 virology institute, with the world’s largest collection of bat coronaviruses, that was doing aggressive research designed to make those pathogens more dangerous,” Metzl said.

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[han]

Didn't YouTube, FB and Twitter ban people who said this in 2020?
"Conspiracy theories" they said.

[QBon]

Remember when they “debunked” that claim last year.
But now all the sudden they think it might be true how interesting.

[simon]

‘Member when you said Trump was a dangerous conspiracy theorist for claiming this a year ago nbc?

[nick]

Media needs to issue an apology to everyone that called conspiracy theorist.

[TheCraftgod]

*WOW, ITS LIKE ALL THOSE TIMES IT WAS CALLED A CONSPIRACY THEORY WERE FORGOTTEN.*

[someguy]

We have been saying this since day one. And Trump was called “ racist “ for saying this

[moozillamoo]

Media has been straining its collective neck trying to look the other way on this matter. Strange.

[ChuckeryOG]

If the most liberal of all stations says it’s true then Trump, and that scientist who risked HER LIFE to tell us this was right

[sidepiecebbq]

Ohh what do you know... it wasn't a conspiracy theory

[sebastianm.]

We’ve known this for over a year, it’s obvious. Now the question is what kind of actions are we going to take against Chi na for this criminal cover up.

[twork]

How is this video not censored? Why has this channel not been de-platformed?

[dbplaypen]

Can I have my social media reinstated now? - Thousands of Non-racist

[ChrissGriffin]

I was right! No matter how much I was called racist and a conspiracy theorist, I did it!

[imagain]

Last week MSM: you were xenophobic.
Today: Well let’s really take a closer look?! 👀

[cetaepsilon]

When you said this last year, you'd be banned from Facebook. Now Facebook is allowing "some" opinion about lab origin. What else is there to do to prove that someone is controlling public opinion ?

[emilysim]

Why US not allow WHO to investigate Fort Detrick

[TheMachine-swgg]

Bring ths Chinese president to stand trial in the United states for releasing the coronavirus

[JbassPlayer]

So over the last year when you wrote anyone who believed this off as a fringe conspiracy theorist, that was just BS?

[vlane]

We knew this last year. They just banned, slandered, or otherwise interfered with anybody who pointed it out. This is far from the first thing you have had to backpedal on, and will be far from the last.

[ekleong]

M. Pompeo “we lied, we cheated, we stole” !