![]() The Wuhan institute had been studying coronaviruses for years, in part because of widespread concerns - tracing back to SARS - that coronaviruses could be the source of the next pandemic. “Less than two years later, such a virus was causing an outbreak in the city,” she said. collaborators “essentially described a blueprint for COVID-like viruses.” She said a 2018 research proposal co-authored by scientists there and their U.S. intelligence community had access to the information the DOE used in reaching its assessment.Īlina Chan, a molecular biologist at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, said she isn’t sure what new intelligence the agencies had, but “it’s reasonable to infer” it relates to activities at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the report. Experts say the true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years - if ever. While some scientists are open to the lab-leak theory, others continue to believe the virus came from animals, mutated, and jumped into people - as has happened in the past with viruses. intelligence community believed with low confidence that the virus was first transmitted from an animal to a human, and a fifth believed with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab. In 2021, officials released an intelligence report summary that said four members of the U.S. White House officials on Monday declined to confirm press reports about the assessment. The DOE oversees a national network of labs. The DOE's conclusion was first reported over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal, which said the classified report was based on new intelligence and noted in an update to a 2021 document. “There is just not an intelligence community consensus.” ![]() government about exactly how COVID started,” John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said Monday. “There is not a consensus right now in the U.S. The report has not been made public.īut others in the U.S. Department of Energy has assessed with “low confidence” in that it began with a lab leak, according to a person familiar with the report who wasn’t authorized to discuss it. WASHINGTON (AP) - A crucial question has eluded governments and health agencies around the world since the COVID-19 pandemic began: Did the virus originate in animals or leak from a Chinese lab?
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