LONDON: There is no evidence that the COVID-causing virus came from animals, the former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday.
George Gao, who was speaking at a London summit on preparing for pandemics, was the head of the agency when COVID first emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019.
“Even now, people think some animals are the host or reservoir,” said Gao. “Cut a long story short, there is no evidence which animals (were) where the virus comes (from).”
The origins of the COVID-19 pandemic remain unknown, with criticism that China has thwarted efforts to find out more. The Chinese government has said it has always supported all efforts to investigate the source.
The World Health Organization has said that all hypotheses for the origins of COVID-19 remain on the table, including that the virus is linked to a high-security laboratory for the study of dangerous pathogens in Wuhan.
China denies any such link.
WHO has also said that the evidence so far points toward the virus coming from animals, likely bats.
Data from the early days of the pandemic was uploaded to a global database by Chinese scientists last month.
It included genetic sequences found in more than 1,000 environmental and animal samples taken in January 2020 at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.
The data showed that DNA from multiple animal species — including raccoon dogs — was present in environmental samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, suggesting that they were “the most likely conduits” of the disease, according to a team of international researchers.
No evidence that COVID came from animals, says former head of China CDC
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No evidence that COVID came from animals, says former head of China CDC
- The origins of the COVID-19 pandemic remain unknown, with criticism that China has thwarted efforts to find out more
- WHO has said that all hypotheses for the origins of COVID-19 remain on the table
Zelensky says Russia preparing for new ‘year of war’
- Putin earlier said Russia would achieve its goals in its Ukraine offensive, including seizing Ukrainian territories it claims as its own
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday Russia was preparing to wage a new “year of war” on his country in 2026, after his counterpart Vladimir Putin said Moscow would “certainly” achieve its objectives.
“Today, we heard yet another signal from Moscow that they are preparing to make next year a year of war,” Zelensky said in his regular evening address.
The statement was a reaction to Putin, who earlier said Russia would achieve its goals in its Ukraine offensive, including seizing Ukrainian territories it claims as its own, amid a flurry of international diplomacy to end the war.
“The goals of the special military operation will certainly be achieved,” Putin told a meeting with defense ministry officials in Moscow, using the Kremlin’s wording for the nearly four-year war.
“We would prefer to do this and eliminate the root causes of the conflict through diplomacy,” he said, vowing to seize the Ukrainian lands Russia claims to have annexed “by military means” if “the opposing country and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive discussions.”
Putin’s hawkish comments come as Ukraine on Monday hailed “progress” made on the question of future security guarantees for Kyiv, after two days of talks with US President Donald Trump’s envoys in Berlin.
But according to Zelensky, differences remain on the question of what territories Ukraine would have to cede to Russia.
Washington’s initial proposal — criticized by Ukraine and its allies as overly favorable to Russia — would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognize the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian.
Zelensky at EU summit
The current contents of the revised plan remain unclear.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin said Russia was waiting for information from the US on the outcome of the talks in Berlin.
“We expect that, as soon as they are ready, our American counterparts will inform us of the results of their work with the Ukrainians and the Europeans,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
In September 2022, Russia claimed to have officially annexed the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson regions, even though it did not have full military control over all of them.
Zelensky is expected to attend a summit in Brussels on Thursday to lobby European Union leaders to adopt a plan to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s defenses.
He said in his evening address that Putin’s bellicose signals “are not only for us.”
“It is important that our partners see this, and important that they not only see it but also respond, including our partners in the United States of America, who often say that Russia supposedly wants to end the war,” he said, accusing Moscow of trying to “undermine diplomacy.”
