U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said the United States believes there are many laboratories in China working on contagious pathogens, but does not know if the facilities have adequate security to prevent future pandemics.
"There are multiple labs that are continuing to conduct work, we think, on contagious pathogens inside of China today," Pompeo told a State Department news conference. "And we don't know if they are operating at a level of security to prevent this [coronavirus pandemic] from happening again. Remember this isn't the first time that we've had a virus come out of China."