WASHINGTON: The chief of american intelligence said Friday that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the chinese government wuhan research laboratory.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said it had no information to support recent claims that three lab scientists were some of the first infected with covid-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Relying on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report said some scientists at the Wuhan lab had genetically engineered Covid-19-like coronaviruses.
But the US has “no information” to indicate that they have done such work on the specific Covid-19 virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, or on any “close progenitor, or closely related parent virus, which enough to have been the origin of the pandemic”.
The report, prepared for Congress and with an unpublished classified annex, came three months after lawmakers demanded a fuller explanation of US intelligence information about the origins of the pandemic that broke out in late 2019.
Some lawmakers allege that the virus was created from so-called gain-of-function genetic engineering research in Wuhan, and that Beijing had covered up evidence to prove it was a man-made disease.
Reiterating a conclusion announced in March, the ODNI report said that “almost all” of its component agencies, including the NSA, CIA and FBI, assess that Covid-19 was not genetically modified and most believe that neither was it adapted in the laboratory. .
But the ODNI report, as in March, did not rule out the possibility that Covid-19 was being tested at the Wuhan lab at the time and may have inadvertently leaked.
ODNI said the intelligence community remained divided on whether the pandemic arose from a natural occurrence of the virus, perhaps transferred from animals such as bats, or from a laboratory leak.
The report said the Wuhan lab had conducted pathogen research and vaccine development together with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “for public health needs.”
But the coronaviruses used in this research “were too distantly related to have led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2,” according to the report.
He firmly rejected the accusations that Covid-19 was developed by the PLA as a biological weapon.
The ODNI report responded to the allegation that three of the scientists at the Wuhan facility who were working on coronavirus contracted Covid-19 just before the outbreak.
He said US intelligence found that several Wuhan researchers fell “mildly” ill in the fall of 2019.
Some of her symptoms were consistent with Covid-19; other symptoms are not consistent, she said.
He also said US intelligence did not know whether those who became ill handled live viruses at work.
“The IC continues to assess that this information does not support or refute any of the hypotheses about the origins of the pandemic because the researchers’ symptoms could have been caused by a number of diseases,” he said.
Look There is no direct evidence that covid-19 came from a leak in the Wuhan laboratory, US intelligence says.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said it had no information to support recent claims that three lab scientists were some of the first infected with covid-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Relying on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report said some scientists at the Wuhan lab had genetically engineered Covid-19-like coronaviruses.
But the US has “no information” to indicate that they have done such work on the specific Covid-19 virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, or on any “close progenitor, or closely related parent virus, which enough to have been the origin of the pandemic”.
The report, prepared for Congress and with an unpublished classified annex, came three months after lawmakers demanded a fuller explanation of US intelligence information about the origins of the pandemic that broke out in late 2019.
Some lawmakers allege that the virus was created from so-called gain-of-function genetic engineering research in Wuhan, and that Beijing had covered up evidence to prove it was a man-made disease.
Reiterating a conclusion announced in March, the ODNI report said that “almost all” of its component agencies, including the NSA, CIA and FBI, assess that Covid-19 was not genetically modified and most believe that neither was it adapted in the laboratory. .
But the ODNI report, as in March, did not rule out the possibility that Covid-19 was being tested at the Wuhan lab at the time and may have inadvertently leaked.
ODNI said the intelligence community remained divided on whether the pandemic arose from a natural occurrence of the virus, perhaps transferred from animals such as bats, or from a laboratory leak.
The report said the Wuhan lab had conducted pathogen research and vaccine development together with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “for public health needs.”
But the coronaviruses used in this research “were too distantly related to have led to the creation of SARS-CoV-2,” according to the report.
He firmly rejected the accusations that Covid-19 was developed by the PLA as a biological weapon.
The ODNI report responded to the allegation that three of the scientists at the Wuhan facility who were working on coronavirus contracted Covid-19 just before the outbreak.
He said US intelligence found that several Wuhan researchers fell “mildly” ill in the fall of 2019.
Some of her symptoms were consistent with Covid-19; other symptoms are not consistent, she said.
He also said US intelligence did not know whether those who became ill handled live viruses at work.
“The IC continues to assess that this information does not support or refute any of the hypotheses about the origins of the pandemic because the researchers’ symptoms could have been caused by a number of diseases,” he said.
Look There is no direct evidence that covid-19 came from a leak in the Wuhan laboratory, US intelligence says.
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