US obstructed independent research into origins of Covid – Lancet – RT World News
Washington has banned scientists in its labs from handling SARS-CoV-like viruses, according to the British medical journal
The United States has blocked independent research into the origins of the virus that caused the global Covid-19 pandemic, according to a Lancet Commission report. US authorities barred researchers from accessing the relevant laboratories and refused to release any information about US studies of the virus and potentially its genetic manipulation, the document published in the British medical journal on Wednesday said.
“Independent researchers have not yet investigated US laboratories engaged in laboratory manipulation of SARS-CoV-like viruses,” the report said while discussing the potential origins of Covid-19 infection. They also had not had access to research conducted at the laboratory in Wuhan, which was considered a possible place where the disease could have originated, the document adds.
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) « resisted to divulge details » research conducted in America on viruses related to SARS-CoV, which the US government agency supports, according to the report. Finally, only one « largely redacted » A version of the relevant data has been provided, the document says, adding that it contains only the amount of information required by prosecutions under the Freedom of Information Act.
The lack of necessary data on the origins of the virus still prevents researchers from determining the origin of the virus, the newspaper admits, adding that virtually any hypothesis in this area remains plausible. In particular, he said that « two main paths possible » of its emergence must still be taken into account: a natural spillover event, in which a person contracted it from an animal, and a « related to research » incident.
The second way suggests in particular that a researcher could have become “infected in the field or in the laboratory with a natural virus, or… in the laboratory with a genetically engineered virus”, said the document.
« The search for the origins of the virus requires impartial, independent, transparent and rigorous work…supported by all governments », notes the report. Washington has so far not commented on the findings of the Lancet Commission.
The exact origins of the Covid-19 virus have yet to be conclusively proven. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in February 2021 that it was most likely transmitted from an animal, possibly a bat, to humans.
Earlier in September, an Israeli study concluded that bats are unlikely to be responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic as there is no convincing evidence proving a link between bats and the disease outbreak. .
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