Matt Hancock was instructed by the Cabinet Office to tone down claims in his memoir that the Covid-19 pandemic originated from a laboratory leak in China, according to leaked correspondence. Officials warned it would “cause problems” if Hancock repeated the claim in his Pandemic Diaries and insisted he must make clear he was not reflecting the government’s view, the Daily Telegraph reported. The changes to the book were made after he submitted the manuscript to the Cabinet Office for review last year – a procedure all former ministers are obliged…
Tag: Coronavirus
US expected to ease Covid testing for arrivals from China
The US is preparing to relax Covid-19 testing restrictions for travellers from China as soon as Friday, according to two people familiar with the decision. The people, who were not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Biden administration had decided to roll back the testing requirements as cases, hospitalisations and deaths were declining in China and the US had gathered better information about the surge. The Washington Post was first to report on Tuesday about the easing of requirements. The restrictions were put…
How did the Covid-19 pandemic begin? We need to investigate all credible hypotheses | Alison Young
This week’s revelation that a top US scientific agency has joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in leaning toward a lab accident in China as the most likely source of the Covid-19 pandemic has once again surfaced the entrenched politics that have impeded the search for answers since day one. The new assessment is contained in a classified intelligence report, first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal and later confirmed by other media organizations. It is a small, yet important development in what has been the largely stalled search for…
Competing US views on origins of Covid reveal deeper splits over China policy
The FBI chief, Chris Wray, has endorsed the theory that the Covid pandemic was the result of a laboratory leak in China, further sharpening an increasingly combative bilateral relationship. In making his intervention, Wray, who was appointed by Donald Trump, was also taking sides in an internal debate over Covid’s origins, which has become a proxy for a broader tussle between hawks and doves within the administration. The Biden White House has sought to strike a balance between confronting Beijing over what it sees as unacceptable behaviour and trying to…
‘Time is not on our side’: Congress panel says tackling China defines next century
The US Congress must act urgently to counter the economic and national security threats posed by the Chinese government, a bipartisan chorus of lawmakers on a newly created special House committee has warned during an inaugural, primetime hearing. The two superpowers were locked in an “existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century”, the committee’s Republican chairman, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, said as the rivalry between the US and China deepens. With democracy advocates and protesters in attendance, the panel – formally the House Select Committee…
How seriously should we take the US DoE’s Covid lab leak theory?
What has the US energy department said about the origin of the Covid outbreak? According to the Wall Street Journal, an updated and classified 2021 US energy department report has concluded that the coronavirus behind the recent pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons programme. Does this report mean it is more likely Covid came from a lab? Not necessarily. The report’s conclusion runs counter to that from several scientific studies as well as reports by a number of other US intelligence…
Covid-19 likely emerged from laboratory leak, US energy department says
The virus which drove the Covid-19 pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons program, according to an updated and classified 2021 US energy department study provided to the White House and senior American lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The department’s finding – a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged – came in an update to a document from the office of National Intelligence director Avril Haines. It follows an FBI finding, issued with “moderate confidence”, that…
Detained activist fears for missing zero-Covid protesters in China
The detained human rights activist Ding Jiaxi has expressed concern for the young protesters who have disappeared since participating in the “blank paper” protests against zero-Covid that stunned China last year. At least 16 of them are still in police detention, according to names gathered by activists, while Ding himself has been detained for more than three years. On Friday he met his lawyer, Peng Jian, via video link. It was the first time the two had met since Ding was awarded the US state department’s global human rights defender…
China claims ‘decisive victory’ over Covid amid doubt over figures
The Chinese government has declared a “decisive victory” in the battle against Covid-19, claiming it had created “a miracle in the history of human civilisation” in successfully steering China through the global pandemic. The comments were made at a meeting presided over by President Xi Jinping on Thursday. The government said more than 200 million people had been treated for Covid and that China’s death rate from coronavirus was “the lowest level in the world”. China’s National Health Commission stopped publishing data on Covid cases and deaths on 25 December,…
China’s provinces spent almost £43bn on Covid measures in 2022
Chinese provinces spent more than £42.8bn on tackling Covid-19 in 2022, according to data released by local governments, with the figure expected to rise as the huge cost of the pandemic hits the world’s second-largest economy. Although national statistics are not yet available, at least 20 of China’s 31 provinces have published figures on how much money they spent on measures to control the pandemic. China abandoned its zero-Covid policy in December. It is now trying to revive the sagging economy, which grew by just 3% in 2022, down from…