Director of National Intelligence releases declassified COVID report

The Director of National Intelligence released to Congress on Friday their long-awaited report on the intelligence community’s conclusions about the origins of COVID-19 and their assessment of the “lablek” theory.

The DNI’s 10-page report produced no new conclusions about the Wuhan lab and shows that the various agencies are divided over the origins of the pandemic.

The FBI and the Department of Energy have previously said that “a lab-related incident was the most likely cause of the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2.”

The National Intelligence Council and four other agencies disagree, saying the pandemic likely started naturally.

The CIA, meanwhile, is on the fence and has not been able to say for sure how it started, given the repeated blockades imposed by the Chinese authorities.

“The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency are still unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face conflicting reporting,” the report said.

The Intelligence Community (IC) was asked to investigate “whether the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – resulted from natural exposure to an infected animal or a lab-related incident.”

The report says that both natural exposure and lab leaks could be the source of the outbreak, and none of the U.S. intelligence community has definitively concluded how the pandemic started.

“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 report notes that the Wuhan lab worked with the Chinese military on bioweapons programs.

Scientists in the lab were employed from 2017-19 “to advance China’s knowledge of pathogens and early disease warning capabilities for military defense and biosecurity needs.”

However, the report notes that they have not found any evidence that COVID-19 was manufactured by the lab technicians.

A SinoVac employee works in a lab at a factory producing its SARS CoV-2 vaccine for COVID-19 in Beijing

“Prior to the pandemic, we assessed that WIV scientists have conducted extensive research on coronaviruses, including animal testing and genetic analysis,” the report said.

“We still have no indication that WIV’s pre-pandemic research holdings included SARSCoV-2 or a close ancestor, nor any direct evidence that there was a specific research-related incident involving WIV personnel prior to the pandemic and that the COVID could have caused a pandemic. ‘

The DNI noted that the lab had one of the world’s largest collections of bat samples and has worked with pangolins and mice, among others, to study coronaviruses.

The lab worked to genetically alter the viruses.

But they don’t believe that COVID-19 is the result of their experiments.

“We find that some WIV scientists have genetically engineered coronaviruses using common laboratory practices,” the report says.

“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.”

The DNI did say there were concerns about lab safety protocols, though they couldn’t say definitively that lax safety caused a lab leak.

“Some WIV researchers probably did not take adequate biosecurity measures when dealing with SARS-like coronaviruses at least for some of the time leading up to the pandemic, increasing the risk of accidental exposure to viruses,” the report said.

“Before the pandemic, WIV had worked to improve at least some biosecurity conditions and training.

“We are not aware of any specific biosecurity incident at WIV that caused the pandemic and the WIV’s biosecurity training seems routine rather than an emergency response by the Chinese leadership.”

The report points to “a need to update obsolete equipment, a need for additional disinfection equipment and improvements to ventilation systems.”

The DNI report discusses illnesses among scientists working in the lab in the fall of 2019, with symptoms similar to those of COVID.

But again, they say the evidence isn’t definitive either way.

‘Several WIV researchers were ill with symptoms in the autumn of 2019; some of their symptoms were consistent with, but not diagnostic of, COVID-19.

“The IC continues to assess that this information neither supports nor disproves 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.”