Coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, says US Energy Department
The coronavirus that caused the pandemic that started in 2020 most likely spread due to an accident in a Chinese laboratory, according to the conclusions of a US Energy Department study accessed by The Wall Street Journal.
The secret services report, delivered to the White House and several congressmen, is based on new intelligence data.
However, it acknowledges that other departments and previous Energy Department reports do not align with this conclusion and, therefore, it deserves “low confidence.”
Other US agencies attribute the spread of the virus to natural contagion, while other agencies have yet to make up their minds.
In 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concluded that the pandemic resulted from a laboratory leak with “moderate confidence” and still maintains this position.
The virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in November 2019.
Since then, nearly 700 million cases and nearly seven million deaths have been confirmed worldwide.
The new Energy Department report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have come to disparate judgments about the origin of the pandemic.
The Energy Department now joins the FBI in saying the virus was probably spread through a mishap in a Chinese laboratory.
Four other agencies and a national intelligence panel still judge that it was probably the result of natural transmission, and two are undecided.
The Energy Department’s conclusion is important because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of US national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.
The FBI previously concluded that the pandemic was likely the result of a laboratory leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still maintains this view.
Despite the agencies’ differing analyses, the new information reaffirms an existing consensus: covid-19 was not the result of a Chinese bioweapons program, said people who read the classified report.
In the years of the pandemic, no confirmed animal source has been identified behind the origin of the virus.
This, coupled with the fact that Wuhan is the center of China’s extensive coronavirus research, has led some US scientists and officials to argue that a laboratory leak is the best explanation for the start of the pandemic.
US State Department cables written in 2018 and internal Chinese documents show lingering concerns about China’s biosecurity procedures, which proponents of the lab leak hypothesis have cited.
Wuhan is home to several laboratories, many of which were built or expanded due to China’s traumatic experience with the initial epidemic of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, that began in 2002.
They include the Wuhan Institute of Virology campuses, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which produces vaccines.
With information from LGI
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