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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States submitted a report stating that its intelligence agencies were unable to reach a consensus on the source of the new crown virus, nor could they reach a consensus on whether the new crown virus was leaked by a laboratory, but what is certain is that it is not a kind of artificial research and development. Of biological and chemical weapons.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which heads 18 U.S. intelligence agencies, released the summary of the report on Thursday (August 26), stating that all subordinate intelligence agencies believe that the source of the new coronavirus has two possibilities: contact with infected animals , Or caused by a laboratory accident.
Among them, several unnamed intelligence agencies believe that the virus may have been transmitted to humans by contact between humans and animals infected with the virus or close relatives of the virus. They also stated that their confidence in this conclusion is “low confidence”.
An intelligence agency pointed out that the first human infection with the new crown may have been caused by an accident in the Wuhan virus laboratory. The degree of confidence in this conclusion is “moderate confidence.”
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The South China Seafood Market in Wuhan was initially considered to be the earliest place where the epidemic broke out, but the scientists subsequently changed their conclusions.
After the summary of the report was released, US President Biden once again criticized China for not cooperating in the traceability investigation of the new crown virus in a statement. He pointed out in the statement that China has a lot of important information about the epidemic, “but from the very beginning, Chinese government officials have continuously prevented international investigators and global health personnel from obtaining such information.”
“The world needs these answers, and I will keep working hard until I get them.” He said.
The Chinese Embassy in the United States also issued a statement on this traceability report, criticizing that the report was fabricated under the leadership of the US intelligence agency, and “has no scientificity and credibility at all.”
“The tracing of the source of the new coronavirus is a scientific issue, and it should and can only be studied by scientists, not intelligence experts.”
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What else does the US traceability report say?
The complete report was sent to the White House on Tuesday (August 24), but the U.S. authorities have not made the complete report public so far. They only published a summary of less than two pages marked “not confidential”, setting out a few specific conclusions:
The four intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council believe that the initial human infection most likely stems from human contact with animals infected with this virus or a similar ancestor virus. The degree of confidence of these institutions in this conclusion is “low confidence”.
An intelligence agency believes that the first human infection most likely originated from a laboratory-related accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including experimental procedures, animal handling, and sampling. The agency’s degree of confidence in this conclusion is “moderate confidence.”
The last part of the summary emphasizes that China must cooperate so that the outside world can make a reliable assessment of the origin of the new coronavirus. It also criticizes China for continuously obstructing the investigation process.
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Scientists believe that the new coronavirus is likely to be transmitted to humans through bats through another intermediate host.
How did China react?
After the Beijing government published the summary of the traceability report in the United States, it issued a statement with a total length of more than 1,600 words through the Chinese Embassy in the United States, describing that if the US government pursues the traceability issue again, it will be “a basket full of water” and no results will be obtained.
The statement again mentioned that Fort Detrick, a US military base, may be the origin of the new crown virus. If the United States insists that the virus was leaked from a laboratory, it should invite the World Health Organization to investigate Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina. .
The Beijing authorities have recently continued to publicize at home and abroad that the new crown virus was created and leaked by the United States at this military facility called Fort Detrick.
“Debourg has been engaged in research and transformation of the coronavirus for a long time. In 2019, a serious safety accident occurred and was shut down. Subsequently, a disease similar to the symptoms of new coronary pneumonia broke out in the United States.”
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Controversy over traceability investigation
In addition to the United States, the WHO went to China in January this year to investigate the source of the new crown virus. After investigating on the ground in China for more than a month, it finally issued a report in March this year. The 120-page report stated that the new coronavirus was “very likely” to be transmitted from bats to humans through another intermediate animal host, but scientists believe that there is currently insufficient evidence to determine a specific species. The expert team also believes that many early cases have no obvious connection with the South China Seafood Market, which may indicate that the South China Seafood Market is not the original source of the epidemic, but there is still no conclusion regarding the role of the market in the origin of the epidemic and how the epidemic was introduced to the market. .
Although no reliable conclusion could be obtained, the investigation team also criticized at the time that the Chinese authorities did not fully disclose the required information, which prevented the expert team from reaching a conclusion.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the time that the investigative team encountered difficulties in obtaining raw data, and hoped for “more timely and comprehensive data sharing” in the future.
The WHO later proposed a second-stage investigation on the traceability issue, but it was opposed by China. Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the National Health Commission of China, stated at the meeting that the second phase of WHO’s plan to “violate laboratory procedures causing virus leakage in China” was one of the research priorities, which revealed that the plan “disrespect for common sense and scientific Arrogant attitude”.
The US media also reported earlier that before the end of the term of former President Trump, the intelligence department also wrote a report saying that in November 2019, several researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology needed to be hospitalized due to illness. The symptoms at the time were related to the new crown pneumonia. The symptoms are very similar. In the current report information released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States, this matter is not mentioned.