[ad_1]
Washington: President American intelligence Friday said that there is no evidence that COVID-19 The virus was created in the Chinese government Wuhan Research Laboratory.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said they had no information to support recent claims that three laboratory scientists were among the first to contract Covid-19 and may have made the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence gathered by several member agencies of the US Intelligence Community (IC), the ODNI report said some scientists at a Wuhan lab genetically engineered coronaviruses similar to Covid-19.
But the US has “no information” indicating that it has done such work on the specific Covid-19 virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, or on any “close ancestor, or backbone virus closely related enough to be the source of the pandemic”.
The report, which was prepared for Congress and carries an unpublished classified appendix, came three months after lawmakers demanded a fuller explanation of US intelligence about the origins of the pandemic that broke out at the end of 2019.
Some lawmakers claim the virus was created from so-called genetic engineering research gained in Wuhan, and that Beijing has withheld evidence to prove it is a man-made disease.
Reaffirming a conclusion announced in March, the ODNI report said that “nearly all” of its constituent agencies, which include the NSA, CIA and FBI, assess that Covid-19 was not genetically modified and most also believe it was not. It is laboratory adapted.
But the ODNI report, as in March, did not rule out the possibility that Covid-19 was being tested in a Wuhan laboratory at the time and might have leaked through negligence.
ODNI said the intelligence community remains divided on whether the epidemic arose from a natural occurrence of the virus — possibly transmitted from animals such as bats — or from a leak in a laboratory.
The report said the Wuhan lab conducted pathogen research and vaccine development with the People’s Liberation Army “for public health needs.”
The report said that the coronaviruses used in this research “were so closely related that they gave rise to SARS-CoV-2.”
It has strongly rejected claims that Covid-19 was developed by the People’s Liberation Army as a biological weapon.
The ODNI report responded to the claim that three of the scientists at the Wuhan facility who were working on coronaviruses had contracted Covid-19 just before the outbreak.
She said US intelligence found that several Wuhan researchers had “mild” illnesses in the fall of 2019.
Some of their symptoms were consistent with Covid-19; Other symptoms are inconsistent, she said.
It also said that US intelligence does not know if those who contracted the disease had contact with live virus in their work.
She added, “The ICRC continues to assess that this information does not support or refute any of the hypotheses related to the origins of the epidemic, because the researchers’ symptoms may have been caused by a number of diseases.”
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said they had no information to support recent claims that three laboratory scientists were among the first to contract Covid-19 and may have made the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence gathered by several member agencies of the US Intelligence Community (IC), the ODNI report said some scientists at a Wuhan lab genetically engineered coronaviruses similar to Covid-19.
But the US has “no information” indicating that it has done such work on the specific Covid-19 virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, or on any “close ancestor, or backbone virus closely related enough to be the source of the pandemic”.
The report, which was prepared for Congress and carries an unpublished classified appendix, came three months after lawmakers demanded a fuller explanation of US intelligence about the origins of the pandemic that broke out at the end of 2019.
Some lawmakers claim the virus was created from so-called genetic engineering research gained in Wuhan, and that Beijing has withheld evidence to prove it is a man-made disease.
Reaffirming a conclusion announced in March, the ODNI report said that “nearly all” of its constituent agencies, which include the NSA, CIA and FBI, assess that Covid-19 was not genetically modified and most also believe it was not. It is laboratory adapted.
But the ODNI report, as in March, did not rule out the possibility that Covid-19 was being tested in a Wuhan laboratory at the time and might have leaked through negligence.
ODNI said the intelligence community remains divided on whether the epidemic arose from a natural occurrence of the virus — possibly transmitted from animals such as bats — or from a leak in a laboratory.
The report said the Wuhan lab conducted pathogen research and vaccine development with the People’s Liberation Army “for public health needs.”
The report said that the coronaviruses used in this research “were so closely related that they gave rise to SARS-CoV-2.”
It has strongly rejected claims that Covid-19 was developed by the People’s Liberation Army as a biological weapon.
The ODNI report responded to the claim that three of the scientists at the Wuhan facility who were working on coronaviruses had contracted Covid-19 just before the outbreak.
She said US intelligence found that several Wuhan researchers had “mild” illnesses in the fall of 2019.
Some of their symptoms were consistent with Covid-19; Other symptoms are inconsistent, she said.
It also said that US intelligence does not know if those who contracted the disease had contact with live virus in their work.
She added, “The ICRC continues to assess that this information does not support or refute any of the hypotheses related to the origins of the epidemic, because the researchers’ symptoms may have been caused by a number of diseases.”
[ad_2]
