A declassified U.S. intelligence report concludes that there is no evidence connecting the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to research or biosafety incidents at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The report, released by Avril Haines, the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), provides an overview of the institute's research capabilities and activities during the early days of the pandemic. While the report does not delve into the two primary hypotheses on the pandemic's origins, it challenges the idea that the actions of Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers triggered the coronavirus outbreak.
Peter Daszak (R), Thea Fischer (L) and other members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus, arrive at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on February 3, 2021.
Wuhan Lab Leak Debunked
As per Live Science, the newly released document emphasizes that there is no substantiated link between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, contradicting claims of a potential laboratory leak.
Although the report does not explicitly address the animal-to-human spillover hypothesis or the laboratory leak theory, the report's findings reject the notion that the actions of the institute's researchers played a role in sparking the pandemic.
Furthermore, the report states that researchers associated with China's People's Liberation Army, who collaborated with WIV staff on virology and vaccine-related work, had no access to potential precursor viruses. While WIV's research involved genetic analysis and virus sampling from animals like bats, there is no indication that they had samples of SARS-CoV-2 or any related precursors.
The report highlights that the WIV first obtained SARS-CoV-2 in late December 2019 when researchers isolated the virus from patients with unknown pneumonia. Although there is no direct evidence of a research-related incident at the WIV that could have triggered the global outbreak, it acknowledges that biosafety precautions at the lab were not always adequate.
However, the institute had been actively working to enhance biosafety measures, equipment, and training practices before the pandemic began.
While WIV researchers have conducted genetic engineering of coronaviruses using standard laboratory practices, there is no indication that such research involved SARS-CoV-2, closely related precursors, or backbone viruses that could be the source of the pandemic. The report overall supports the lack of evidence linking the WIV to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research on COVID-19 Origins Must Continue
Since the initial COVID-19 human cases were reported in Wuhan in late 2019, the origins of the coronavirus pandemic have sparked intense debate in the United States.
According to the four-page report from the ODNI, the exact origin of the COVID-19 pandemic remains unknown. While the report acknowledges the possibility that the virus could have originated from a laboratory, it emphasizes that the intelligence community cannot definitively confirm this hypothesis or determine the pandemic's origins.
Moreover, ABC News shared that the report highlights that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and another agency have been unable to establish the precise source of the pandemic due to significant assumptions and conflicting information regarding both natural and lab-related hypotheses.
Despite extensive research on coronaviruses conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), no specific incident that could have sparked the outbreak has been identified by the intelligence agencies.
Furthermore, the report suggests that reports of lab researchers experiencing respiratory illnesses in late 2019 do not provide conclusive evidence. The symptoms displayed by the researchers could have been caused by various diseases, and some of the symptoms did not align with those typically associated with COVID-19.
Consequently, the information available to US intelligence neither supports nor refutes either hypothesis regarding the origins of the pandemic.
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