US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — The Chinese public is demanding clarification from the US about coronavirus after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted that it was the US military who could bring the coronavirus to Wuhan.
Chinese scientists urge the US government to publish information on the cessation of the US military bio-laboratory for infectious diseases in Fort Detrick, Maryland, at the end of last year.
The Global Times, a Chinese newspaper, citing an article in The New York Times, “A deadly biological study in an army laboratory closed due to security concerns,” said the government’s security concerns in the laboratory stopped research related to dangerous viruses, including the virus.
The Fort Detrick Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases said the lab would be closed for several months and also confirmed that there was no threat to public health, employees, or the leakage of hazardous materials.
However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it ordered the study to be stopped at Fort Detrick because the wastewater treatment system did not meet standards. He declined to comment further, citing reasons related to national security.
The Army Medical Research Institute at Fort Detrick is studying microbes and viruses that can later be used as biological weapons. In addition, he is engaged in the study of various diseases and conducts extensive research work for government agencies, universities and pharmaceutical companies.
American activists posted a petition on the White House website asking for clarification about the true reason for the closure of the laboratory in Fort Detrick and whether it was related to coronavirus. In addition, they are interested in whether the American authorities hide the number of victims from the coronavirus or “make out” deaths under the flu.
Chinese experts recalled a research paper published on the website of the scientific journal Natura in 2015, which states that a group of scientists created coronavirus in collaboration with the American army. After the advent of the SARS virus (2002-2003) and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), scientists were aware of the risk of interspecific transmission that would lead to an epidemic among people.
They studied bats, which are the largest incubators of coronaviruses. However, bats could not transmit the coronavirus to humans because they could not interact with human cells with ACE2 receptors.
Ongoing studies have shown that horseshoe bats carry a strain of SARS coronavirus that can be transmitted to humans. It has been named the SHC014-CoV virus. To better study this virus, scientists copied the coronavirus and infected it with laboratory mice.
The results showed that the virus is really able to bind to human cells with ACE2 receptors and multiply in the cells of the respiratory system. In the research work, it is noted that laboratory materials, samples and equipment that were used during the research were obtained from the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. It is worth noting that so far there is no evidence that the virus that was tested on laboratory mice is the same as the raging SARS-Cove-2 coronavirus in the world.
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The article is written and prepared by our foreign editors from different countries around the world – material edited and published by Ordo News staff in our US newsroom press.