Global Courant
A long-awaited government report on the origins of Covid-19 offered new details about the US intelligence community’s findings, but did not definitively state whether the source of the coronavirus was exposure to an infected animal or an event in a laboratory.
“All agencies continue to assess that both natural and lab-related origins remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a 10-page document Friday. released report.
The report exposed divisions within the intelligence community, some of which had been previously acknowledged.
While the National Intelligence Council and four unnamed agencies ruled that natural exposure to an infected animal was the most likely scenario for the first human infection, the Department of Energy and FBI believed a lab-related incident was more likely the cause.
Meanwhile, the CIA and an unidentified agency “remain unable to determine the precise origins of the COVID-19 pandemic as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face conflicting reporting,” the report states.
“Almost all” intelligence agencies agreed that the virus was not genetically engineered, and all agencies agreed that Covid was not manufactured as a biological weapon.
In addition, the report said that “most” agencies also agreed that the virus had not been adapted to the lab — more specifically, that the virus had not undergone natural, random mutations through human-activated processes in the lab.
The report shed light on the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was at the center of a hypothesis that the virus escaped from a laboratory and began infecting humans or was transmitted to humans from an animal.
It described how between 2017 and 2019, the lab funded research and some of its staff performed in collaboration with the People’s Liberation Army to advance China’s knowledge of pathogens and early disease warning capabilities for the military’s defensive and biosecurity needs.
Part of the research conducted by the People’s Liberation Army and laboratory “included work with various viruses, including coronaviruses, but no known viruses that could plausibly be a precursor to” Covid, the report said.
The report also said that while the lab and the military were collaborating on vaccines and therapies relevant to coronaviruses, “this work was for public health purposes” and that the coronaviruses known to be used were “too distantly related” to be led to the virus that causes Covid. -19.
The intelligence community expanded its investigation into Covid-19 in March by examining whether the first human infection with the virus resulted from natural exposure to an infected animal or a lab-related incident, Friday’s report said.
In 2021, a US intelligence report identified three researchers from the Wuhan Institute who sought treatment at a hospital after falling ill in November 2019. the lab.
The report released Friday notes that several researchers were sick in the fall of 2019 and that some of their symptoms were “consistent with, but not diagnostic of, COVID-19,” suggesting they may have a cold or allergies. been, and that their illness alone “supports nor disproves either hypothesis about the origin of the pandemic.”
The intelligence community was unaware of any particular biosecurity incident that may have triggered the pandemic, the report said, while noting that some of the lab’s researchers “probably lack adequate biosecurity measures at least some of the time leading up to the pandemic.” taken when dealing with SARS-like coronaviruses,” which increased the risk of potential exposure to viruses.
Parts of the lab were inspected in 2020, revealing overdue updates to old equipment and the need for additional disinfectant equipment and improved ventilation systems, but the report cautioned that the timing of these findings was “not necessarily indicative” of the biosafety status of the laboratory before the outbreak.
Congress passed legislation earlier this year requiring the intelligence community to release information regarding possible links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the pandemic.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, said in a statement Friday that the US “has issued similar reports before.”
“The US should stop repeating the ‘lab leak’ story, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the issue of tracing origins,” Liu said.
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said the release of the report reflects a commitment by President Joe Biden “to release and share as much information as possible about the origins of COVID-19 while protecting sources and methods.” .” The spokesperson added that “getting to the bottom of” Covid remains a top priority for the president.
Ohio House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, and Rep. Brad Wenstrup, president of the Select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemiccalled the released report “a promising step towards full transparency”.
“Everyone deserves to know the truth,” the two GOP lawmakers said in a statement, adding that their committees “will continue to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and the information obtained today will help to continue the investigation.” .”
In the Senate, Mark Warner, chairman of the intelligence committee, pointed the finger at Beijing for the uncertainty that still surrounds the early days of the coronavirus.
“Basic concepts that we take for granted in our democracy, such as accountability and transparency, are a total abomination to the Chinese Communist Party. As a result, we may never learn the true origins of the global pandemic that has caused millions of lost lives and livelihoods,” Warner, D-Va., said in a statement.
The Chinese government has maintained it has “always been open and transparent” about Covid.
Biden administration officials have also expressed frustration with China conducting Covid investigations.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a Fox News interview this year that the Chinese government had done its best to try to thwart and obscure the work here, the work that we are doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners doing. do, and that is a pity for everyone.”
The Chinese embassy did not respond to Wray’s comments at the time.
