US intelligence agencies remain divided over Lab Leak Theory

Intelligence agencies do not believe the case of three workers at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, who fell ill in 2019 could help to find out whether the Covid-19 pandemic was caused by an accidental leak in a laboratory, according to a report released Friday.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released a much-anticipated declassified report detailing intelligence agencies’ findings on the so-called lab leak theory, but the material is unlikely to satisfy many people who have grappled with the unanswered questions about its origins. of the Covid outbreak.

The 10-page report said scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were researching coronaviruses, in some cases had inadequate safety precautions and had genetically engineered coronaviruses. But intelligence officials said they have found nothing that tells them that the work in the lab caused the pandemic.

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“However, the IC has no information to indicate that any genetic engineering work of the WIV SARS-CoV-2 involved a proximate precursor or a spinal virus closely enough related to have been the source of the pandemic,” it said. report. , referring to the findings of the intelligence services.

The country’s intelligence community, which includes more than a dozen government agencies, is divided on the origins of Covid: two agencies believe a lab leak was more likely, while five others favor natural transmission from an animal market as the most likely cause from the original Covid outbreak. The CIA and another agency are still unable to determine the precise origin of the pandemic given conflicting information, the report said.

“All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-related origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,” the report said.

The illness of the three workers, first made public by the State Department at the end of the Trump administration, has been a focus of researchers, journalists and the intelligence community.

Last August, intelligence agencies concluded that the workers’ case could not help analysts determine whether the lab leak or natural transmission was more likely.

Nevertheless, the case of the three workers has received extra attention in recent days. A Chinese scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology worked on coronavirus projects funded by the U.S. government and was one of three researchers who fell ill in November 2019. However, US intelligence agencies have not determined whether the investigators had Covid or another illness with similar symptoms.

The report released on Friday reinforced the intelligence community’s view that workers’ illnesses failed to help shed light on the origins of the pandemic.

The workers became mildly ill, but the report cast doubt on Covid as the cause. The report cites findings from the World Health Organization that said investigators from China’s National Security Commission reported blood samples from the sick workers came back negative for Covid. It is not clear from the report whether intelligence agencies believe the work of the Chinese researchers, but the intelligence services do not believe the workers’ illness can help resolve questions about the origins of the pandemic.

“The IC continues to assess that this information does not support or refute either hypothesis about the origin of the pandemic, as the researchers’ symptoms could have been caused by a number of illnesses and some symptoms were not consistent with Covid-19,” it said. report. .

Both the Trump and Biden administrations commissioned investigations into the origins of Covid, and intelligence agencies generated hundreds of pages of material. But

After three years of study, some senior US officials have said it is unlikely the intelligence services will come to a satisfactory conclusion, largely because China has not cooperated with international investigations and some officials in Beijing are not interested in delving deeper into the cause. of the pandemic.

The new report is the result of a bipartisan bill that directed intelligence agencies to release a declassified version of what they know about whether Covid may have been created at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and then accidentally escaped from the lab.

The report was released on a Friday night, traditionally a time when governments release news they want buried or ignored. Conservatives had criticized the administration for failing to meet an early week deadline, even though few congressional-mandated reports are delivered exactly on time.

While officials in the Biden administration have said they have ordered investigations without favoring one theory over another, Republicans have sharply criticized the way the White House and its intelligence agencies have investigated the origins of Covid.

“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence and common sense,” said John Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, when the report was released Friday. “The Biden administration’s politicization of the origins of Covid is a disservice to the intelligence community.”