24-6-2023 (WASHINGTON) US officials released an intelligence report on Friday that addressed the origins of COVID-19, rejecting some arguments suggesting a leak from a Chinese lab. The report, issued in response to a congressional request, emphasized the continued division among American spy agencies regarding the pandemic’s beginnings.
Following a bill passed in March, which mandated the declassification of intelligence related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, lawmakers have urged intelligence officials under President Joe Biden to disclose more information about the origins of the virus. However, the officials have consistently maintained that China’s lack of cooperation and transparency hindered a conclusive determination of how the pandemic originated.
The release of the latest report has provoked criticism from certain Republicans who accuse the administration of withholding classified information, as well as from researchers who claim that the US has not been forthcoming. John Ratcliffe, former US director of national intelligence under President Donald Trump, accused the Biden administration of perpetuating “continued obfuscation.”
Ratcliffe asserted, “The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense,” emphasizing his disagreement with the report’s conclusions.
The report noted the Department of Energy’s intelligence arm’s report earlier this year, which pointed to a potential lab-related incident and sparked renewed interest among researchers. However, Friday’s report stated that the intelligence community did not reach a definitive consensus. Four agencies maintain the belief that the virus originated from animal-to-human transmission, while two agencies—the Energy Department and the FBI—lean towards the lab leak theory. The CIA and another agency have not provided a conclusive assessment.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in the city widely believed to be the epicenter of the pandemic, has faced intense scrutiny due to its previous research on bat coronaviruses and reported security issues. The report mentioned the lab’s genetic engineering work, including attempts to combine different viruses. However, it clarified that US intelligence has no information indicating that such genetic engineering specifically involved the SARS-CoV-2 virus or any closely related progenitor that could have been the source of the pandemic.
The report also addressed reports of respiratory symptoms among lab researchers in the fall of 2019, stating that the available information is inconclusive. US intelligence concluded that the symptoms exhibited by the researchers could have been caused by various diseases and were not necessarily consistent with COVID-19.
In response to the report, Republican chairs of the House Intelligence Committee and a select subcommittee on the pandemic, Representatives Mike Turner and Brad Wenstrup, commended the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for taking a step toward transparency. They expressed the need to continue corroborating available evidence and conducting further investigations into the origins of COVID-19.
However, molecular biologist Alina Chan, a proponent of the lab leak hypothesis, pointed out that the publicly released version of the report did not include the names of researchers who fell ill or other details mandated by Congress. The bill allowing for the review permitted redaction of information to protect agency sources and methods.
Chan voiced her concerns on Twitter, stating, “It’s getting very difficult to believe that the government is not trying to hide what they know about #OriginOfCovid when you see a report like this that contains none of the requested info.”
