More than three years, investigation Part of the origin of the virus centers on a pair of competing hypotheses: a natural spillover from infected animals to humans, and the “lab leak” theory. The latter It is positive that the virus emerged from a laboratory where researchers study coronaviruses – possibly in Wuhan, China, the site of first cases of an unusual, highly contagious respiratory disease reported in December 2019.
In May 2021, President Biden ordered US intelligence agencies to investigate the origin of the virus, based in part on their own classified information sources, including part of the Chinese government’s response to the epidemic. Intelligence officials have previously reported that the agencies have not reached a consensus, although most of them favor the natural origin scenario.
The new report, which is required by law and released Friday night, adds little to those earlier assessments, which remain unchanged, but it addresses some specific potential links raised by lab leak advocates.
The report mainly focused on potential connections between the pandemic and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including collaborations between researchers at the civilian institution and the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military. WIV conducts extensive research on coronaviruses.
The intelligence agencies found that “some of the research carried out by the PLA and WIV includes work on several viruses, including coronaviruses, but no known viruses that could be an ancestor of SARS-CoV-2,” the virus that causes covid-19, according to a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
While acknowledging the research conducted at the lab, including animal sampling and genetic analysis, “We maintain that there is no indication that WIV’s pre-pandemic research holdings include SARS-CoV-2 or a close ancestor , or any direct evidence that a specific. Research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel prior to the pandemic that could have caused the COVID pandemic,” the intelligence report found.
Some media reports and Republican-led investigations have suggested there was a biosafety incident at the Wuhan lab in 2019, citing translations of official Chinese Communist Party statements and training sessions for lab workers.
But while the US intelligence assessment acknowledged that some laboratory workers “may not have used adequate biosafety precautions at least some time” before the pandemic, US officials say no. they can make a link between practices and the emergence of covid-19.
“We are not aware of a specific WIV biosafety incident that triggered the pandemic and WIV biosafety training appears to be routine, rather than an emergency response by the Chinese leadership,” the ODNI report said. .
Despite warnings from other Chinese scientists, researchers in Wuhan for years have been experimenting with coronaviruses in laboratories that lack the proper safety equipment for dealing with known pathogens. and their ability to “directly infect humans through their spike protein,” the report said. In addition, a safety inspection in early 2020 found problems with aging equipment as well as insufficient disinfectants and ventilation equipment, it said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Scientists in early 2020 often rejected the possibility of a lab leak, arguing instead that the virus likely spread from animals to humans.
“We do not believe that any kind of laboratory-based scenario is plausible,” five prominent virologists wrote in Nature Medicine in March 2020. That article – titled “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2” – helped influence subsequent news coverage of the pandemic and later informed US officials when asked about the origin of the virus.
Some researchers also concluded that the pandemic may have started in a market in Wuhan near where the first cases of an unusual pneumonia were reported. But those assertions have failed to quell the fierce debate about the origin of the virus, and some scientists say that recent efforts to assert that the market is the clear starting point of the pandemic — including recent analysis suggesting that raccoon dogs kept in a Wuhan market may have been linked to the first cases of covid — required further investigation and ultimately backfired.
Many of the authors behind the “proximal origin” paper have FROM suggesting that their initial conclusion about the implausible lab origin of covid-19 may have been too strong.
Congressional Republicans have also opened investigations into whether the US government inadvertently contributed to the pandemic by funding Chinese coronavirus research, and whether scientists improperly coordinated with federal officials such as Anthony S. Fauci. to form their conclusions about the origin of the virus.
Fauci declined to comment.
The House panel investigating the response to covid on Friday subpoenaed Kristian Andersen, a scientist at Scripps Research and one of the authors of the proximal source article, who requested additional documents.
“Dr. explained Kristian Andersen played an important role in the possible suppression of the lab leak hypothesis, and the American people deserve to know why it happened, who was involved, and how we can prevent the deliberate suppression of scientific discourse during a future pandemic. ,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R) -Ohio), who chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said in a statement.
Scripps Research did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democrats have criticized Republicans for their focus on the origins of the virus, saying their investigations have become too focused on partisan politics and not enough on public health.
“Instead of using the question of the origin of the pandemic to promote a politically driven story, we must – as much as we can – comprehensively, rigorously, and objectively consider all the potential possibilities of how it arose of the virus. so that our findings can inform good policies to prevent and better prepare us for the next pandemic,” Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the covid panel, wrote a June 8 letter to Wenstrup that was shared by The Washington Post.
Supporters of the lab leak theory point to what they consider to be circumstantial but compelling evidence.
Wuhan happened to be a leading research hub for coronaviruses, they said. In the years leading up to the outbreak of covid-19, scientists in Wuhan collected, analyzed and tested thousands of unknown coronaviruses, most of which were obtained from bats native to far southern provinces of China. During the outbreak, Chinese scientists also identified widespread safety problems in the country’s laboratories, failures that could, in theory, lead to accidental exposure to dangerous viruses.
“A lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence and common sense,” John Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence in the Trump administration and was privy to classified information about the virus, said one statement. “On the contrary, after four years, there is still nothing connecting this virus to anything in nature – no environmental source, no intermediate host or animal species.”
“The Biden Administration’s continued obfuscation of the origins of COVID is a disservice to the intelligence community, appeases the Chinese Communist Party, and denies justice to millions of Americans who have lost their lives. dear to this deadly virus,” Ratcliffe said.
There is no public evidence of a lab leak, and there is no record that any of the laboratories in Wuhan have the SARS-CoV-2 strain that causes covid-19, although Chinese officials have not released an inventory listing the coronaviruses studied in late 2019 The intelligence review also concluded that the Wuhan lab “first had SARS-CoV-2 in late December 2019, when researchers of WIV isolated and identified the virus from samples from patients diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause.”
Beijing also refused to release detailed records about three scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who reportedly fell ill with flu-like symptoms in November 2019. The outbreak is “Patient Zero.”
Scientists have strongly rejected the reports, saying that they have not contracted covid-19, and have never worked with live viruses in the lab.
US officials also said they found no connection between the sick researchers and a lab leak, adding that some of the sick researchers were confirmed to have other illnesses. “We have no indications that any of these researchers were hospitalized for symptoms consistent with COVID-19,” the intelligence report concluded.
