Quotes
It is extremely unlikely the pandemic was caused by a lab leak,
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters
When you take other intelligence into account, the lab leak theory starts to seem more plausible,
said Seth Baum of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, which co-published the survey with Nemesys Insights
They refused to collaborate from the start,
opined EbrightWhether we'll get an evidence-based conclusion depends on countries like China collaborating and being forthcoming with data,
said Baum
The evidence supports a zoonotic origin,
said Angie Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in CanadaThe key step of tracing and testing the animals at the Huanan market was not done [at the time] and it's too late now. For this reason, we have been unable to identify the exact animal ancestry,
said HolmesThe strongest evidence comes from the timeline of research [going back to] 2012. Published papers from the institute show scientists could construct modified coronaviruses,
said Richard H. Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University in the USEvery form of the lab leak theory involves some sort of cover up, which to me means that it's a conspiracy theory,
said Edward Holmes, a professor of virology at the University of Sydney in AustraliaWe have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA's assessment,
the CIA said in a statement
I’m going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure that the public is aware that the agency is going to get off the sidelines,
Ratcliffe told Breitbart
Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,
Cotton said in a statement
I hope you will act accordingly,
Wang told Rubio, according to a Foreign Ministry statement, employing a Chinese phrase typically used by a teacher or a boss warning a student or employee to behave and be responsible for their actionsDon’t read the English translation that they put out because the English translation is never right,
he saidCIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible,
the statement said
The vast preponderance of it said exactly the opposite, said exactly what we’ve concluded, is that most likely, all of the intelligence that we had — circumstantial though it may be — pointed towards this being a research-related incident, not naturally occurring,
Ratcliffe said at the eventI’ve been on record as you know in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictates that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
Ratcliffe told Breitbart