The Buzz | China Slams US Covid lab claims as ‘conspiracy theories’

China accused the U.S. of spreading “lies” and “conspiracy theories” after the Trump administration said it had new information suggesting the coronavirus might have emerged from a Chinese laboratory.
A U.S. State Department “fact sheet” on the virus origins released Friday was “full of fallacies,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing yesterday in Beijing. She dismissed the claims as the “last madness” of outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.
“The so-called fact sheet is another lie sheet produced by the U.S. side,” Hua said. “This fully demonstrates that some U.S. politicians are keen on violating science, hyping up conspiracy theories, spreading political viruses for their personal gains, while paying no attention to public security and people’s lives. This is also the last madness of Pompeo – Mr. Lies.”
A team of WHO experts arrived in China last week and is currently in quarantine.
The State Department said it had new evidence that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill in the autumn of 2019 – before the first identified case of the coronavirus in the central Chinese city – with symptoms consistent with Covid-19 or common seasonal illnesses.