“Therefore, what I have seen shows that at present, the number one suspect of the origin of this disease is still a zoonotic disease caused by raising wild animals in some way.”

Johnson said that although this theory is shared by British epidemiologists and the World Health Organization (World Health Organisation), the virus comes from the theory of slaughter of wild animals, but he “will not rule out any possibility.”

He told the host Rosemary Barton (Rosemary Barton): “Currently, I am reading a lot of interesting materials that explain the possibility of some viruses escaping from the laboratory. I think we must keep an open mind.”

Johnson addressed the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation next month before the G7 meeting to be held by the British government in St Ives, Cornwall, southwest England.

A Downing Street spokesperson told CBC News that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend the meeting in person.

At the beginning of the pandemic, a controversial theory emerged that COVID-19 came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China-Wuhan Institute of Virology, where it studied bat coronaviruses.

Former US President Donald Trump supported this theory and referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus.” It was largely rejected by the media, experts and critics of the president.

This position is changing rapidly, partly because a declassified US intelligence report released earlier this month stated that several Chinese researchers at the institute became ill in November 2019 and had to be hospitalized.

White House coronavirus adviser Anthony Fauci said at a Senate hearing last week that he and most others in the scientific community “believe that the most likely scenario is that this is a natural occurrence, but no one can know for sure. 100%.

“Because there are a lot of concerns, a lot of speculation, and because no one absolutely knows this, I think we really need to conduct an open and transparent investigation and carefully study all available information for investigation.”

Regional Research Center

This week, US President Biden ordered intelligence officials to “double” their efforts to investigate the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the possibility that this clue may lead to a Chinese laboratory.

Biden asked the intelligence agency to report within 90 days and instructed the US National Laboratory to assist in the investigation. The intelligence agency prepared a specific inquiry list for the Chinese government.

Trudeau said this week that his government supports US investigations to ensure accountability and help Canada prepare for future pandemics.

Trudeau said: “I know there are a lot of theories, but we need to ensure that we have a full and comprehensive understanding of the facts to really understand what happened and how to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

Johnson said that as part of the preparatory work, the G7 meeting will discuss how countries around the world strive to establish “zoological research centers” to help determine the birthplace of new animal-to-human diseases.

You can watch the entire episode of Rosemary Barton’s live broadcast CBC Gem, CBC’s streaming media service.