Meanwhile, the pressure has increased to evaluate the lab leak theory more thoroughly (File)
Washington, United States:
A classified US intelligence report delivered to the White House on Tuesday was inconclusive about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to US media reports, due in part to a lack of information from China.
The assessment, ordered 90 days ago by President Joe Biden, could not definitively conclude whether the virus that first emerged in central China had jumped onto humans through animals or escaped a high-security research facility in Wuhan, two US officials said. familiar with the case told the Washington Post.
They said parts of the report could be released in the coming days.
The debate over the origin of the virus that has killed more than four million people and crippled economies worldwide has become increasingly controversial.
When entrusted with the investigation, Biden said US intelligence was divided on the “two likely scenarios” — animals or labs.
Former President Donald Trump and his aides had helped fuel the lab leak theory amid intense criticism of their administration’s handling of the world’s largest outbreak, pointing the finger at Beijing, which strongly denies the hypothesis.
Despite Biden’s directive that the intelligence community “redouble their efforts” to untangle the debate over origins, the 90-day review didn’t get them any closer to a consensus, the officials told the Post.
Part of the problem is a lack of detailed information from China, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“If China doesn’t allow access to certain datasets, you’ll never really know,” an official told the Journal on condition of anonymity, as the report is not public.
Beijing has rejected calls from the United States and other countries for a renewed origin investigation after a heavily politicized visit by a World Health Organization team in January also proved inconclusive and was criticized for lack of transparency and access.
Meanwhile, the pressure has increased to evaluate the lab leak theory more thoroughly.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the hypothesis of natural origin – that the virus emerged in bats and was then transmitted to humans, probably through an intermediate species – became widely accepted. But as time has gone on, scientists have not found a virus in bats or any other animal that matches the SARS-CoV-2 genetic signature.
In light of China’s reluctance to open up to outside researchers, experts are increasingly open to the theory that the virus could have leaked from a lab conducting bat coronavirus research in Wuhan, an idea once dismissed as a conspiracy. which was propagated by the US far-right.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has admitted that the global health agency’s initial investigation into Wuhan’s virology labs didn’t go far enough.
But the WHO’s call last month to include audits of the labs in the second phase of the study infuriated Beijing. Deputy Health Minister Zeng Yixin said the plan shows “disrespect for common sense and arrogance towards science”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
