Representational image. Reuters File
US authorities presented an intelligence analysis Friday that refuted some claims that COVID-19 was stolen from a Chinese facility, instead maintaining that American espionage services are divided about how the outbreak started.
The report was published at the request of Congress, which enacted a measure in March requiring US intelligence to declassify information relating to the Wuhan Institute of Virology within 90 days.
Legislators have pressed intelligence authorities under President Joe Biden to reveal additional information regarding the origins of COVID-19. However, they have frequently claimed that China’s government obstruction of independent assessments has made it difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain how the pandemic began.
The latest study enraged several Republicans who claim the government is wrongfully withholding confidential material, as well as experts who accuse the US of being uncooperative.
previous US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who served under previous President Donald Trump, accused the Biden administration of “continued obfuscation.”
“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense,” Ratcliffe said in a statement.
There was newfound interest from researchers following the revelation earlier this year that the Department of Energy’s intelligence arm had issued a report arguing for a lab-related incident.
But Friday’s report said the intelligence community has not gone further. Four agencies still believe the virus was transferred from animals to humans, and two agencies — the Energy Department and the FBI — believe the virus leaked from a lab. The CIA and another agency have not made an assessment.
Located in the city where the pandemic is believed to have began, the Wuhan Institute of Virology has faced intense scrutiny for its previous research into bat coronaviruses and its reported security lapses.
The lab genetically engineered viruses as part of its research, the report said, including efforts to combine different viruses.
But the report says US intelligence “has no information, however, indicating that any WIV genetic engineering work has involved SARS-CoV-2, a close progenitor, or a backbone virus that is closely-related enough to have been the source of the pandemic.”
And reports of several lab researchers falling ill with respiratory symptoms in fall 2019 are also inconclusive, the report argues.
US intelligence, the report said, “continues to assess that this information neither supports nor refutes either hypothesis of the pandemic’s origins because the researchers’ symptoms could have been caused by a number of diseases and some of the symptoms were not consistent with COVID-19.”
Responding to the report, the Republican chairs of the House Intelligence Committee and a select subcommittee on the pandemic jointly said they had gathered information in favor of the lab leak hypothesis. Reps. Mike Turner and Brad Wenstrup, both of Ohio, credited the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence for taking a “promising step toward transparency.”
“While we appreciate the report from ODNI, the corroboration of all available evidence along with further investigation into the origins of COVID-19 must continue,” Turner and Wenstrup said.
But Alina Chan, a molecular biologist who has long argued the virus may have originated in the Wuhan lab, noted the public version of the report did not include the names of researchers who fell sick or other details mandated by Congress.
The bill requiring the review allowed intelligence officials to redact information publicly to protect agency sources and methods.
“It’s getting very difficult to believe that the government is not trying to hide what they know about #OriginOfCovid when you see a report like this that contains none of the requested info,” Chan tweeted.
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.