Unclassified summaries show that four members of America’s intelligence community believe with low confidence that the virus was transmitted from an animal to human. The fifth intelligence agency believes that the human infection was caused by a laboratory. Analysts don’t believe that the virus was created as a bioweapon, and most agencies do not believe it was genetically engineered.
According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, China has “continued to hinder the global investigation and resist sharing information with other countries” and that a conclusion on the cause of the virus will likely require China’s cooperation.
Coronavirus is a serious public health and security threat worldwide. Many conservatives in the United States have accused Chinese scientists, who created COVID-19 and allowed it to leak from a laboratory. Former President Donald Trump issued a fact sheet in which he stated that the State Department had published research on coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This is the Chinese city that was the site of the first known major outbreak.
Scientific consensus is that the virus likely originated from animals via what’s called a zoonotic transfer. Spillover events are natural phenomena that occur in nature. There are at least two coronaviruses found in bats that caused epidemics in humans, SARS1 or MERS.
Biden stated that China had blocked efforts to investigate the virus from the beginning.
He said, “The world needs answers and I won’t rest until they get them.” “Responsible countries do not ignore their responsibilities to the rest the world.
China’s foreign minister attacked the U.S. probe ahead of the release of the report. Fu Cong, the director general of China’s foreign ministry, stated at a briefing for foreign reporters that “scapegoating China can not whitewash America.”
He said, “If they want China to be baselessly accused, they should be ready to accept the counterattack from China.”
Biden ordered a review of the initial White House finding that led to “two possible scenarios,” a 90-day review by Biden. According to the White House, two of the 18-member intelligence agencies leaned towards the possibility that there was a natural transmission while another agency lean toward a laboratory leak.
Friday’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not identify the agencies that supported either hypothesis. It did however note the same problems facing scientists around the world and the World Health Organization: the lack of clinical samples or data from COVID-19’s earliest cases.
Intelligence agencies worked with experts from outside government and allied countries to conduct the review. The National Intelligence Council is a group that includes senior experts who consult the intelligence chief.
