Lawmakers say it ‘lends credence’ to lab leak theory
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence finally released a government report on the origins of COVID-19 on Friday. The chairs of the House Intelligence and Coronavirus Pandemic committees say the report lends credence to the theory that the virus may have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Congress passed legislation earlier this year mandating the declassification of information related to potential connections between the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the origins of the pandemic.
The declassified report provides insight into the activities of the WIV before the pandemic and presents the Intelligence Community’s (IC) understanding of the origins of COVID-19. However, it does not definitively determine the source of the virus.
“All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,” the 10-page declassified report states (pdf).
The report includes assessments from the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the Department of Energy, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other unnamed agencies.
The majority of agencies, including the NIC and four other Intelligence Community agencies, believe that the virus most likely resulted from natural exposure to an infected animal or a close progenitor.
However, the Department of Energy and the FBI hold the view that the virus originated in a laboratory, although they have different reasons for their assessment.
The CIA and another agency are unable to determine the precise origin of COVID-19, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting, the report states.
Some of the assessments in the report were previously known.
The IC expanded its investigation into COVID-19 in March to explore whether the initial human infection occurred naturally through contact with an infected animal or if it was connected to a laboratory incident.
The report states that the virus was not genetically engineered nor created as a biological weapon, according to “almost all” of the agencies involved. However, there is disagreement among agencies regarding the laboratory origin hypothesis.
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