On March 11, the COVID-19 outbreak was characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) external icon.
With the fear spreading faster than the deadly coronavirus, more than 125,000 people have been infected globally.
Last year, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China had the first outbreak, which has left many of the Chinese population and its government to question the origin of the novel coronavirus.
According to the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, the United States military could have brought the novel coronavirus to China.
In October 2019, about 300 athletes from the US Armed Forces were in Wuhan for the Military World Games, a multi-sport event that takes place after every four years since 1995.
Zhao republished a video on twitter of Robert Redfield, the director for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention speaking to the US Congressional committee on March 11, 2020.
In the clip, Redfiled said some of the Influenza deaths in the United States were later identified as cases of Covid-19, a disease caused by the coronavirus.
"CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in the US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be the US army that brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! The US owes us an explanation!” he tweeted on Thursday.
As deputy chief of mission at China's embassy in Pakistan, Lijian has a history of combative and bombastic statements on Twitter that many in the West have actually compared to Donald Trump's social media style of unfiltered accusations.
Also during a press conference in Beijing on March 4, Zhao told reporters that "no conclusion has been reached yet on the origin of the virus and the Chinese scientists were still tracing where it came from”.
Days earlier, China’s ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian restrained his country’s role in the pandemic and tweeted that although the first epidemic was recorded in China, it didn't mean the virus "originated from China."
The first case of the pandemic in the United States was in Washington State with now over 370 cases and at least 31 deaths.
Comments