The US Energy Department now joins the FBI in saying that the Covid-19 virus, which killed nearly 7 million people worldwide according to the WHO, most likely emerged from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China. This news was reported by the US media, citing a classified intelligence report that was circulated in the White House and shown to critical members of Congress.
The reports reveal how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at different conclusions as to the emergence of the virus.
The Energy Department and the FBI, both have agreed, that the virus emerged from a mishap at a Chinese Laboratory, and from there the virus spread to the world. Four other agencies,which officials wouldn’t name, and the national intelligence panel still believe that it was likely the result of natural transmission while two other agencies are undecided.
The Energy Department’s report concluded that the result is from new intelligence which is significant because the agency has scientific expertise and looks over a network of US national laboratories. Although, few of them conduct advanced biological research. Due to this, people who have read the classified report stated that the Energy Department made its judgment with 'low confidence.’
Following the emergence of this news in the US media, Mao Ning, Spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 is about science and should not be politicized.
He further stated that "China has always supported and participated in global science-based origins-tracing.”
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the intelligence community is divided on the matter. President Joe Biden has put resources into getting to the bottom of the situation. Joe Biden and Jake Sullivan have directed the national laboratories, which were a part of the Department of Energy, to be brought into the assessment.
“Right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question,” Sullivan told CNN, “some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other. A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information to be sure.” The deadly virus has also disrupted the global economy, trade, as well as, travel.
The National Intelligence Council, and four other agencies, which officially refused to identify, still assess with 'low confidence' that the virus came about through natural transmission from an infected animal.
The CIA and another agency, which officials wouldn't name, remain undecided between the leak and natural transmission theory.
At the very start, it was believed that the virus likely emerged when it leaped from an animal to a human, as it has previously happened. But as time went on, no animal host was found. China claimed that the virus had leaked from the Wuan Institute of Virology, and has suggested from there, it emerged outside of China.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao stated that “A laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely.” This conclusion was reached as a science-based, definitive conclusion by the experts of the WHO-China joint mission after field trips to the lab in Wuhan and in-depth communication with researchers.
Furthermore, during a regular foreign ministry briefing in Beijing, Mao states, “It was accurately recorded in the mission’s report and has received extensive recognition from the international community.
Meanwhile, US House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul has said that he was “pleased” that the Energy Department “has finally reached the same conclusion that I had already come to.” A Texas Republican released a 2021 report which concluded that “the preponderance of the evidence” showed the pandemic originated with a leak from the Wuhan lab.
In a statement on Sunday, McCaul stated that “Now is the time for the entire Biden administration to join the Department of Energy, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the majority of Americans by publicly concluding what common sense told us at the start – the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China.”
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