Report from the US secret services: Corona origin remains unclear

Status: 08/28/2021 1:27 a.m.

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The US secret services were also unable to conclusively clarify the question of the origin of the corona virus. In their eagerly awaited report, they cite two hypotheses – and demand more transparency from Beijing.

For around three months, US intelligence services had been researching the origin of the corona virus on behalf of US President Joe Biden. Their report is now available – but they have not come to a clear conclusion. Whether the virus came from a laboratory or jumped from an animal to humans is open, it said. Both are “plausible hypotheses”.

Four US intelligence agencies tend to conclude that the pandemic is due to animal-to-human virus transmission, according to the report. Two other secret services, however, assume that a laboratory accident led to the pandemic. Analysts in three other services were unable to rule out either theories.

There is consensus that the Chinese authorities were not aware of the virus before the first outbreak of Covid-19. The secret services also assume that the virus was not developed as a biological weapon.

Beijing asked to cooperate

There is also consensus among intelligence services that more precise conclusions are only possible if more information is made available. Above all, you need the support of China for this. You write: “However, Beijing continues to obstruct the global investigation, refuse to share information and blame other countries, including the United States.”

Biden: “The world deserves answers”

In May, the US President commissioned American intelligence services to get to the bottom of the origin of the corona pandemic. At the time, he had instructed them to submit a further report on this within 90 days. In an initial analysis, the secret services had already come to different assessments.

“The world deserves answers and I won’t rest until we get them,” responded Biden to the report. Therefore, China will continue to be urged to provide relevant information.

Wuhan was the starting point for the pandemic

The corona pandemic has meanwhile claimed around 4.5 million people worldwide who died of or with Covid-19. It started in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. It was soon speculated that the virus could have escaped in an accident from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, which is researching coronaviruses. The Chinese government vigorously denies this.

A team of international experts on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) was only able to visit Wuhan in January of this year – more than a year after the virus was discovered. Their report was published at the end of March but did not provide any clear results either. The WHO experts classified the so-called laboratory theory as “extremely unlikely”. However, doubts quickly arose about the investigation and the report. Many countries expressed concern that international experts had been denied access to important data during their investigation in China.