Mark Milley, Top U.S. General, Blames China's 'Cover-Up' of COVID Origins for Inconclusive Answers
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Wednesday that the origins of the coronavirus pandemic remain inconclusive, while adding he felt a "cover-up" by the Chinese government is impeding the investigation.
The U.S. military's top officer made his comments to Fox News while aboard a military aircraft following a commencement speech he gave at the Air Force Academy. When asked if his thoughts on the origin of the virus were the same as a year ago, Milley answered, "What I said a year ago, it's still true today. It's inconclusive, we don't know."
Milley also noted he hadn't seen anything new that would change his mind about the coronavirus. He said, "The weight of evidence seems to indicate natural, but we don't know for certain."
The general made additional comments that were reported by Fox News in regards to the Chinese Communist Party, who he feels has not been entirely truthful about what it knows about the start of COVID-19.
"Once this virus started appearing, there seems to have been a fair amount of activity or cover-up or lack of transparency, probably the best way to put it, and all of that is disturbing. So we need to get to the bottom of it. That's clear," he said.
"I think that the president is exactly right, we need to get to the bottom of it," Milley also said.
The White House released a statement from President Joe Biden on Wednesday about the investigation into the origins of COVID-19. It opened by stating: "Back in early 2020, when COVID-19 emerged, I called for the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] to get access to China to learn about the virus so we could fight it more effectively. The failure to get our inspectors on the ground in those early months will always hamper any investigation into the origin of COVID-19."
Later in the text, he explained the U.S. intelligence community was exploring different possible origin scenarios. One is that the virus began spreading after a human contracted it from an infected animal. The other theory is that the virus was accidentally leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Biden emphasized that due to insufficient evidence, the intelligence community "has not reached a definitive conclusion" at this time.
"The United States will also keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence," he wrote in closing.
Milley also stated during his talk on the aircraft of the importance of the investigation.
"We need to know as a nation," he said. "We need to know as a world, because the scale and scope of this pandemic was enormous. It still is enormous."
Newsweek contacted the Joints Chiefs of Staff for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
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