A long-awaited government report on the origins of covid-19 offered new details about the findings of the US intelligence community, but did not definitively indicate whether the source of the coronavirus was exposure to an animal infected or an event in a laboratory.
“All agencies continue to assess that both natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Friday in a 10-page document. declassified report.
The report exposed divisions within the Intelligence Community, some of which were previously acknowledged.
While the National Intelligence Council and four unnamed agencies assessed natural exposure to an infected animal as the most likely setting for the first human infection, the Department of Energy and FBI assessment was that an incident was the most likely cause. associated with a laboratory.
Meanwhile, the CIA and an unnamed agency «remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses are based on significant assumptions or are challenged by conflicting reports,» the report states.
“Almost all” the intelligence agencies agreed that the virus was not genetically engineered, and all the agencies agreed that Covid was not manufactured as a bioweapon.
In addition, the report said that «most» agencies also agreed that the virus was not laboratory-adapted, more specifically, that the virus had not undergone natural random mutations through human-enabled processes in the laboratory.
The report shed light on the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the center of a hypothesis that the virus escaped from a laboratory and began infecting people or was transmitted to humans via an animal.
He described how between 2017 and 2019 the lab funded, and some of its staff conducted, research in collaboration with the People’s Liberation Army to increase China’s knowledge of pathogens and disease early warning capabilities for the defensive and biosecurity needs of the armed forces.
Some of the research carried out by the People’s Liberation Army and the laboratory «included work with various viruses, including coronaviruses, but no known virus that could plausibly be a progenitor of» Covid, according to the report.
The report also said that while the lab and the military collaborated on vaccines and therapies relevant to coronaviruses, «this work was intended for public health needs» and the coronaviruses known to be used were «too distantly related.» » as to have carried the virus that causes the covid. -19.
In March, the intelligence community expanded its investigation into Covid-19 by examining whether the first human infection with the virus was the result of natural exposure to an infected animal or a laboratory-related incident, according to Friday’s report.
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, providing inconclusive circumstantial evidence that seemed to bolster the hypothesis that the virus could have spread to humans after escaping from the lab.
The report released Friday notes that several researchers became ill in the fall of 2019 and that some of their symptoms were «consistent with but not diagnostic of COVID-19,» suggesting that they may have had a cold or allergies, and that their illness by itself «neither supports nor refutes any of the hypotheses about the origins of the pandemic.»
The intelligence community was unaware of a particular biosecurity incident that may have caused the pandemic, the report said, though it noted that some of the lab’s researchers «probably failed to use appropriate biosecurity precautions at least part of the time.» prior to the pandemic to handle SARS-like coronaviruses,» which increased the risk of potential exposure to the viruses.
Portions of the lab were inspected in 2020, revealing overdue upgrades to aging equipment and needs for additional disinfectant equipment and improved ventilation systems, but the report cautioned that the timing of these findings was «not necessarily indicative» of the lab’s biosafety status. before the outbreak.
Congress passed a law earlier this year requiring the intelligence community to declassify information related to possible links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the pandemic.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said in a statement on Friday that the United States «has issued similar reports before.»
«The United States should stop repeating the ‘lab leak’ narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the issue of origin tracing,» Liu said.
A White House National Security Council spokesman said the release of the report reflects President Joe Biden’s commitment to «declassify and share as much information as possible related to the origins of COVID-19, while protecting sources.» and the methods”. The spokesperson added that «getting to the bottom of the origins» of Covid remains a priority for the president.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner of Ohio and Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who chairs the Select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemiccalled the declassified report «a promising step toward full transparency.»
“Everyone deserves to know the truth,” the two Republican 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 advance their investigation.”
In the Senate, Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner pointed a finger at Beijing for the uncertainty still surrounding the early days of the coronavirus.
“Basic concepts that we take for granted in our democracy, such as accountability and transparency, are completely anathema to the Communist Party of China. As a result, we may never know the true origins of the global pandemic that has resulted in the loss of millions of lives and livelihoods,» Warner, D-Va., said in a statement.
The Chinese government has maintained that 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 been doing «everything we can to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our government of The US and close foreign partners are doing it, and that’s unfortunate for everyone.»
The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to Wray’s comments.