44 minutes agoCOVID-19 origin may never be known, says American intelligence
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)The origin of the new coronary, which causes COVID-19 disease, may never be discovered, American intelligence agencies said in their report. However, agencies have concluded that the virus was not created as a biological weapon. In a updated assessment of the origin of COVID-19, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence [...]
However, agencies have concluded that the virus was not created as a biological weapon.
In a updated assessment of the origin of COVID-19, the US National Intelligence Director's Office said both theories: human animal transmission and exit from a virus laboratory are reliable but there is no reliable information to make a final assessment.
China has criticised the report.
The data was released in a declassified report, which is an update of a report the American President Joe Biden's administration published in August.
The report said the intelligence community remains divided on the origin of the virus.
Four agencies had low “faith” that the Coronavirus originated with an infected animal.
But, one agency said there was the average “of belief” that the first human infection was most likely the result of a laboratory accident, probably including experimenting or treatment of animals from the Vwan Institute of Virology in China.
The report also said Chinese officials were unaware of the existence of the virus prior to the-19OVID initial explosion in the town of Vuhan at the end of 2019.
But according to American intelligence findings, China was continuing to undermine the investigation and did not share information.
Chinese authorities had linked the spread of the virus to a food market in Vuhan, prompting scientists to argue that the virus passed from animal to human.
But early this year, U.S. media published reports that said there was evidence that the virus could have been released from the laboratory in Vwan, perhaps as a result of an accident.
In May, President Biden ordered intelligence officials to investigate the origin of the virus, including its laboratory leak theory.
China has rejected such a theory.
China's Embassy in Washington told Reuters that the US “efforts for the origin of COVID-19 to rely on its own intelligence device instead of scientists is a political farce”.
Since March 2020, some 240 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with over 4.9 million deaths. / REL
