US intel report reveals COVID did not come from Wuhan Lab
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US intelligence agencies reveal there is no direct evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by an incident at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.
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A researcher works on a vaccine against the new coronavirus COVID-19 at the Copenhagen University research lab in Copenhagen, Denmark, on March 23, 2020. (AFP)
Legislation approved by Congress and signed by US President Joe Biden in March directed the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to declassify information about the possible origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The DNI was required to declassify its report within 90 days as a result of the measure.
According to a newly disclosed report by the Director of National Intelligence, the US intelligence agency discovered no occurrence that would have triggered the COVID-19 epidemic at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
While WIV officials did a considerable study on a range of coronaviruses, the report stated that there is "no indication" that the laboratory ever obtained samples of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 "or a close progenitor."
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The findings specifically stated that there were no signs of "any direct evidence that a specific research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel before the pandemic that could have caused the COVID pandemic."
According to the declassified assessment, there was no indication that the WIV did any "genetic engineering work" with the COVID-19 virus, and all intelligence agencies assessed that "SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon."
"Information available to the [intelligence community] indicates that some of the research conducted by the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] and WIV included work with several viruses, including coronaviruses, but no known viruses that could plausibly be a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2," the report stated, acknowledging that the WIV was independent of the PLA but occasionally worked in conjunction.
The National Intelligence Council and four other intelligence agencies assessed that SARS-CoV-2 was "most likely caused by natural exposure to an infected animal," yet the World Virus Institute did not receive a sample of the virus until late December 2019.
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The intelligence agencies were effectively "unable to determine the precise origin" of the outbreak, according to the DNI report. Additionally, there were no signs that the WIV researchers were hospitalized for COVID symptoms. However, the report did not particularly investigate whether the virus spread to other sites in Wuhan, nor did it assess the validity of hypotheses that it spread due to a lab leak or natural reasons.
Republicans have spoken out in response to the report's findings and the government's lack of transparency. Both the Republican chairs of the House Intelligence Committee and the pandemic subcommittee cited past evidence that supported the lab leak claims.
