US intelligence agencies fail to reach 'definitive conclusion' on COVID origins

In a significant development, the US Intelligence community has revealed the latest finding on the origin of COVID. The American Intelligence community has said that they did not find any concrete information that supports the exact origin of COVID from China, and the IC also revealed that they were not certain about whether the virus emerged in nature. The intelligence community of the US has also discarded the theory of COVID as a biological weapon, said US President Joe Biden after reviewing the results.

The US Intelligence agencies failed to find COVID origins 

It is pertinent to mention here that the Director of National Intelligence handed over the research report to Biden, in which they mentioned that COVID probably emerged on a small scale during November 2019, and the first case was reported in Wuhan in December 2019. However, the intelligence community did not come to any conclusion on the origin of the deadly coronavirus, but it was certain that the virus was not developed as a biological weapon, whereas many other entities felt otherwise. Meanwhile, some agencies said that there was not enough evidence to assess the origin of the virus. The names of the intelligence agencies were not mentioned in the report.

Moreover, the report also said that China had no prior knowledge of the outbreak of COVID. On the other hand, after examining the report, the US President said, his administration will do everything under their power to find out about this outbreak that has wreaked havoc upon the whole world. Biden said his administration will continue the investigation so that every necessary precaution can be taken to prevent it from affecting more people. Moreover, the Chinese government has also worked to prevent international investigations and members of the health community from accessing it, he added. Even after 18 months of the pandemic, China continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, Biden alleged.

Earlier, the WHO team, which visited China, concluded their results by saying the deadly disease began in the animal market of Wuhan. The conclusion was rejected by many researchers. The research led by the Intelligence community of the US was initiated by Biden. In May, this year, he had asked the community to assess the data and produce a report that could bring any definitive conclusion regarding COVID origins.

What did the US intelligence agencies observe?

After the investigation, the National Intelligence Council said the SARS-CoV-2 virus was probably caused by a natural exposer to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus-a virus that would be 99 per cent similar to SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, one IC element noted that the first cases of COVID in humans were likely associated with the Wuhan lab incident, which probably emerged either during experimentation, animal handling, or sampling at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The intelligence community did not reach any definitive conclusion regarding the origin of the virus. While three IC elements said the virus originated naturally, some favored the Wuhan lab theory and some supported both the hypotheses. Meanwhile, China reacted to the report and said the US intelligence community's report was not scientific and the US was showing a lack of transparency, as the Biden-led government only wanted to politicize and stigmatize the issue.

IMAGE: AP/PIXABAY
(With PTI Inputs)