Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 01, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A12 A 12 FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2020 ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMNEWS I COVID-19 PANDEMIC WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday specu- lated China could have unleashed the coronavirus on the world due to some kind of horrible "mistake," and his in- telligence agencies said they are still examining a notion put forward by the president and aides the pandemic may have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab. Trump even suggested the release could have been intentional. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the clearinghouse for the web of U.S. spy agencies, said it had ruled out the virus being man-made but was still investigating the precise source of the global pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 people worldwide. Though scientists suggest the like- liest origin of the pandemic remains natural, that it spread from an infected animal to a human, Trump claimed to have seen evidence to support the theory the origin was an infectious dis- ease lab in Wuhan, the epicentre of the Chinese outbreak. He said the U.S. now "is finding how it came out." "It's a terrible thing that happened," the president said. "Whether they made a mistake or whether it started off as a mistake and then they made another one, or did somebody do something on purpose." The intel statement said the federal agencies concur "with the wide sci- entific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified." "The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wu- han." In recent days the Trump adminis- tration has sharpened its rhetoric on China, accusing the geopolitical foe and vital trading partner of failing to act swiftly enough to sound the alarm about the outbreak or to stop the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. U.S. officials have said the Chinese govern- ment should "pay a price" for its hand- ling of the pandemic. This all comes as the pace of Trump's own original response continues to come under scrutiny, questioned as too meagre and too slow. Earlier Thursday, before Trump's comments, the Chinese government said any claims that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory are "unfounded and purely fabricated out of nothing." Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang cited the institute's director, Yuan Zhiming, as saying the lab strict- ly implements bio-security procedures that would prevent the release of any pathogen. "I would like to point out again that the origin of the virus is a complex sci- entific issue, and it should be studied by scientists and professionals," Geng said. He also criticized those in the U.S. who say China should be held account- able for the global pandemic, saying they should spend their time on "bet- ter controlling the epidemic situation at home." At the White House, Trump repeat- edly blamed China for its handling of the outbreak, criticizing the country for restricting domestic travel to slow the virus but not international travel to keep it from spreading abroad. "Certainly it could have been stopped," Trump said. "They either couldn't do it from a competence stand- point, or they let it spread. "It got loose, let's say, and they could have capped it." Earlier this month, Trump addressed the lab theory saying, "More and more, we're hearing the story." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added at the time, "The mere fact that we don't know the answers - that China hasn't shared the answers - I think is very, very telling." Pompeo also pressed China to let out- side experts into the lab "so that we can determine precisely where this virus began." While Trump and Pompeo have made their feelings clear, a U.S. intelligence official disputed the notion that there was pressure on agencies to bolster a particular theory. The intelligence of- ficial was not authorized to publicly dis- cuss the issue and spoke only on condi- tion of anonymity. Scientists say the virus arose natur- ally in bats. Even so, Pompeo and others have pointed fingers at an institute that is run by the Chinese Academy of Sci- ences. It has done groundbreaking re- search tracing the likely origins of the SARS virus, finding new bat viruses and discovering how they could jump to people. "We know that there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was," Pompeo said two weeks ago. The institute has an address 13 kilometres from the market that is considered a possible source. U.S. officials say the American Em- bassy in Beijing flagged concerns about potential safety issues at the lab in Wuhan in 2018, but they have yet to find any evidence the virus originated there nearly two years later. Scientists studying the virus for months have made clear they believe it wasn't man-made but are still work- ing to determine a point at which it may have jumped from animals to humans. Early attention focused on the live- animal market in Wuhan where the first cases were reported in December. The first person identified with the dis- ease had no known connection to that market. Kristian Andersen, who studies the virus at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif., puts the odds of it being acci- dentally released by the Wuhan lab at "a million to one," far less likely than an infection in nature. But virus expert David O'Connor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said he thinks too little is known to rule out any source, except the idea the virus was man- made. Finding the source is important, he said, because it may harbour the next pandemic virus. The U.S. was providing funding to the Wuhan lab for its research on corona- viruses, Michael Morell, former act- ing director and deputy director of the CIA, said Thursday. He said State Department cables indi- cate that there have been concerns in past years among U.S. officials about the safety protocols at that lab. If the virus did escape from a Chinese lab, it not only reflects negatively on China but also on the United States for provid- ing research funding to a lab that has safety concerns, Morell said during an online forum hosted by the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy and International Security at George Mason University. "So if it did escape, we're all in this together," Morell said. "This is not a gotcha for China. This is a gotcha for both of us." - The Associated Press ZEKE MILLER ALEX BRANDON / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. President Donald Trump claimed to have seen evidence to support the theory the origin was an infectious disease lab in Wuhan, the epicentre of the Chinese outbreak. Trump speculates 'lab mistake' led to release of virus N EW YORK - Bleak new figures Thursday underscored the world-wide economic pain inflicted by the coronavirus: The number of Amer- icans filing for unemployment benefits has climbed past a staggering 30 mil- lion, while Europe's economies have gone into an epic slide. And as bad as the numbers are, some are already outdated because of the lag in gathering data. The true economic picture is almost certainly much worse. The statistics are likely to stoke the debate over whether to ease the lock- downs that have closed factories and other businesses. While many states and countries have pressed ahead, health officials have warned of the dan- ger of a second wave of infection, and some employers and employees have expressed fear of going back to work when large numbers of people are still dying. In the U.S., the government reported that 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for jobless benefits last week, raising the total to 30.3 million in the six weeks since the outbreak took hold. The lay- offs amount to one in six American workers and encompass more people than the entire population of Texas. Some economists say that when the U.S. unemployment rate for April comes out next week, it could be as high as 20 per cent - a figure not seen since the Depression of the 1930s, when job- lessness peaked at 25 per cent. The number of Americans thrown out of work could be much higher than the unemployment claims show, be- cause some people have not applied and others couldn't get through to their states' overwhelmed systems. A poll by two economists found that the U.S. may have lost 34 million jobs. There was grim new data across Europe, too, where more than 130,000 people with the virus have died. The economy in the 19 countries using the euro shrank 3.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year, the biggest contrac- tion since the eurozone countries began keeping joint statistics 25 years ago. "This is the saddest day for the global economy we have ever seen" in the 50 years that economists at High Fre- quency Economics have been following the data, they wrote in a report. Even then, the statistics do not cap- ture the enormity of the crisis. The quarterly figures cover January through March, and many of the lock- downs in Europe and the U.S. were not imposed until March - the second half of March in a multitude of places in the United States. Stocks fell on Wall Street as the dis- couraging news piled up, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing nearly 290 points, or more than one per cent. Even Amazon, which Americans are relying on heavily to stock up on goods, offered a mixed report, with sales sky- rocketing in the first quarter but prof- its dropping 29 per cent because of the rising costs to get all those packages shipped. The company still ended the quar- ter on a relatively high note, however, reporting net earnings of $2.5 billion - an astonishing contrast to the losses sustained by some companies. One of them, American Airlines, slammed by a lack of passengers during the outbreak, on Thursday reported a loss of $2.2 bil- lion for the period. The virus has killed over 230,000 people worldwide, including more than 61,000 in the U.S., according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Confirmed infections globally topped 3.2 million, with 1 million of them in the U.S., but the true numbers are believed to be much higher because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments. In other developments: . Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. govern- ment's top infectious-diseases expert, said he expects federal approval for the first drug to prove effective against the coronavirus to happen "really quickly." Remdesivir, made by California's Gil- ead Sciences, hastened the recovery of COVID-19 patients in a major govern- ment study, and it might also have re- duced deaths, according to Fauci. . A 1,000-bed navy hospital ship that arrived in New York City to great fan- fare a month ago left town after treat- ing just 182 patients. The surge of cases there has fallen well short of the dooms- day predictions. The 24-hour number of deaths statewide was down to 306, the lowest in a month. . With signs that the outbreak has stabilized in places, U.S. President Don- ald Trump said he would not extend the White House's social-distancing guide- lines past their expiration Thursday. Those guidelines encouraged people to work from home and avoid restaurants, groups and nonessential travel. . A suburban Minneapolis nursing home, St. Therese of New Hope, said 47 residents have died as a result of COVID-19 in yet another severe out- break at an institution for the frail or elderly. At least 70 people have died at a veterans home in Massachusetts in the deadliest known cluster of its kind. . California Gov. Gavin Newsom or- dered beaches in Orange County closed until further notice after tens of thou- sands of people flocked to the sand last weekend. This week, the U.S. estimated its econ- omy shrank at a 4.8 per cent annual rate in the first three months of the year, the sharpest quarterly drop since the 2008 financial crisis. The current quarter is expected to be much worse, with a stag- gering 40 per cent drop projected. Still, analysts saw a glimmer of hope in the way new unemployment claims have fallen for four straight weeks. Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, said the wave of layoffs at vulnerable businesses such as restaurants, hotels and stores may have largely run its course. "Thankfully, for now, the economic contagion seems to have plateaued," Stettner said. "But we're still at a level that is a mortal threat to the nation's fi- nancial well-being." Across the U.S., many governors have taken steps to gradually reopen their economies, amid impatience among Americans who complain their liveli- hoods are being destroyed and their rights trampled. In Michigan, hundreds of protesters returned to the Capitol to denounce Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-home order and business restric- tions. The Republican-led Michigan House refused to extend the state's coronavirus emergency declaration and voted to authorize a lawsuit challen- ging Whitmer's authority and actions to combat the pandemic. But even in states where businesses are being allowed to reopen, some workers are uneasy about returning. Lacey Ward, an Omaha hairstylist, said she is worried that the Nebraska governor's decision to let salons reopen on May 4 could put her and her family at risk. She would prefer to collect un- employment until the danger subsides. "I feel like we are literally the guinea pigs in this situation," she said. - The Associated Press DAVID CRARY, CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AND JOHN LEICESTER Figures show grim toll in Europe and U.S. Economies worldwide in massive slide PAUL SANCYA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A protester carries his rifle at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Thursday. Protesters went there to denounce Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-home order and business restrictions. A_12_May-01-20_FP_01.indd A12 2020-04-30 10:29 PM ;