WASHINGTON--U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged China to be transparent about the origins of the novel coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than a quarter of a million people since it started in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
Trump, speaking before leaving on a trip to Arizona, said the United States would release a report detailing the origins of the virus, but gave no details or timeline. "We will be reporting very definitively over a period of time," Trump told reporters.
While taking aim at China as the source of the outbreak and warning that it would be held to account, Trump and officials in his administration have expressed differing levels of confidence about the exact origin of the virus. On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was “a significant amount of evidence” that it emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, while not disputing U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that it was not man-made.
On Tuesday, General Mark Milley, the top U.S. general, said it was still not known whether the coronavirus emerged from a wet market in China, the institute of virology or some other location - echoing remarks Pompeo made last Thursday. Trump was asked last Thursday if he had seen evidence that gave him a "high degree of confidence" that the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and replied that he had, although he declined to give specifics.
The Chinese state-backed institute has dismissed allegations that the virus originated there. Most experts believe the virus originated in a Wuhan market selling wildlife and jumped from animals to people.
