US report says Covid probably arose from Chinese laboratory leak – 02/26/2023 – Equilibrium and Health

A new classified intelligence report from the US Department of Energy concludes that the Covid-19 pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday (26).

The document, delivered to the White House and key members of Congress, represents a shift in the department’s stance, which was previously undecided on how the virus emerged, according to the paper. The pandemic began in China at the end of 2019 and accounts for nearly 7 million deaths worldwide.

Although classified as “low confidence”, according to people who read the confidential report, the content goes against what the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has already defended in a 2021 document.

That year, the agency came to the conclusion, with “moderate confidence, that the pandemic arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, and it still holds that view. The FDA employs a cadre of microbiologists, immunologists, and other scientists.

The Department of Energy has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of US national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.

But this does not mean that the question is closed. The new report highlights there are disparate judgments about the origin of the pandemic within the US government intelligence community itself.

Four agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, judge with “low confidence” that the virus likely arose naturally and jumped from an animal to a human. Two other agencies are undecided.

Despite the agencies’ differing analyses, the report reaffirmed that there is consensus among them that Covid-19 was not the result of a Chinese biological weapons program.

A senior US intelligence official told the WSJ that the new report was prepared in light of new information, further study of academic literature and consultation with experts outside of government.

US officials, however, declined to elaborate on the new analyzes that prompted the Energy Department to change its position.

Asked about the WSJ report, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Democratic President Joe Biden has repeatedly instructed the entire intelligence community to be as discerning as possible about the origins of the pandemic.

“President Biden specifically requested that the national labs, which are part of the Department of Energy, be included in this assessment because he wants to use every tool to be able to find out what happened here,” Sullivan said during an appearance on CNN Sunday.

There is a “variety of views in the intelligence community,” Sullivan added. “Several of them said they just don’t have enough information.”

A spokesman for the Department of Energy declined to discuss the case, but wrote in a statement that the agency “continues to support the thorough, careful and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of Covid-19, as President’s guidance. The FBI declined to comment on the matter.

China, which imposed limits on WHO (World Health Organization) investigations, had previously contested that the virus could have leaked from one of its laboratories, suggesting that it emerged outside Chinese territory.

The Chinese government did not respond to requests from the WSJ for comment on whether there has been any change in its views on the origins of Covid-19.

On the 15th, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pledged to do “everything possible” to have an “answer” on the origin of Covid-19. “There is a scientific and moral dimension to this problem, and we have to keep pushing until we get an answer.”

The lack of an animal source that could confirm the origin of the virus transmission and the fact that Wuhan province is the center of China’s extensive coronavirus research have led some US scientists and officials to argue that a laboratory leak is the best explanation for the beginning of the pandemic so far, according to the newspaper.

US State Department cables written in 2018 and internal Chinese documents show that there were lingering concerns about China’s biosecurity procedures, which have been cited by proponents of the laboratory leak hypothesis.

Wuhan is home to a number of laboratories, many of which were built or expanded as a result of China’s traumatic experience with the initial epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which began in 2002. They include the campuses of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which produces vaccines.