The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) admits to having three live strains of bat coronavirus, but it denies having the strain of SARS-CoV-2 – labeled COVID-19 – that has caused the global coronavirus pandemic, the New York Post reported.
"Now we have three strains of live viruses," WIV Director Yanyi Wang told Agence France-Presse (AFP), maintaining they have "isolated and obtained some coronaviruses from bats."
"But their highest similarity to SARS-CoV-2 only reaches 79.8 percent," Yanyi added. "It's an obvious difference."
Wang was rejecting claims by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo the COVID-19 was a result of a WIV lab accident, calling it "pure fabrication," the Post reported.
She claimed WIV only "encountered, researched, or kept the virus" with the COVID-19 strain when they received them Dec. 30.
"In fact, like everyone else, we didn't even know the virus existed," she added. "How could it have leaked from our lab when we never had it?"
The lab accident claims are made by U.S. government to "fabricate rumors" and "stigmatize China," according to Chinese Foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday, per the Post.
Wang Yi also rejected an "open" investigation into the origins of the coronavirus unless it was "free of political interference," the Post reported.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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