Ratcliffe: China’s Military Ordered Wuhan Lab to Experiment with Viruses Similar to COVID-19, Some Scientists Had ‘COVID-Like’ Symptoms

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe stated that China’s military “ordered scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to experiment with coronaviruses” and some of these “were 96.2% genetically similar to the current COVID-19 virus. And further, some of those scientists working on those similar coronaviruses became sick with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019.”

Ratcliffe said, “I think what the W.H.O. came out and said yesterday was really disingenuous. Mike Pompeo and I worked very hard to get some of our best intelligence out before we left office a few weeks ago so we could talk about what we knew about China and COVID. And some of that intelligence is this, is that the Chinese military ordered scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to experiment with coronaviruses starting as far back as 2017. Some of those viruses were 96.2% genetically similar to the current COVID-19 virus. And further, some of those scientists working on those similar coronaviruses became sick with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019.”

Ratcliffe continued, “Now, what the World Health Organization would have you believe is after two weeks on the ground there, talking to scientists and doctors selected by the Chinese Communist Party under the supervision of the Chinese Communist Party, that none of that — of what I just related to you about our intelligence is relevant to a potential lab accident at Wuhan. It’s really just disingenuous.”

He added, “[I]f we take our very best intelligence on this, our very best intelligence, human intelligence, signals intelligence, and we take out the word ‘China’ and ‘President Xi,’ and we insert the word ‘Russia’ and ‘Vladimir Putin,’ what would this administration be saying? What would Democrats on Capitol Hill be saying? What would the media be writing?”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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