US intelligence has declassified this Friday a secret report on the potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the city where the first cases were detected, and the origin of the covid-19 pandemic. Although some fragments remain censored, the report points to two alternative hypotheses and is not conclusive. Some US agencies believe in the natural origin of the pandemic and others, on the other hand, believe that it was a laboratory product.
The publication complies with a law approved by Congress and signed by Biden last March that required the Government to deliver to congressmen within 90 days the information available to the intelligence services on possible links between the Institute of Wuhan virology (WIV) and the origin of the pandemic.
The report, produced by the office of the Director of National Intelligence, cautions from the outset that it does not address the merits of the two most likely scenarios for the origin of the pandemic, nor does it provide information about other biological facilities in Wuhan apart from the Institute of Virology.
The previous president, Donald Trump, frequently used the origin of the disease as a dialectical weapon of confrontation with China. Biden has tried to avoid using that issue in the confrontation with China. The report is published at a time of tension between the two superpowers.
It explains that in March, the US intelligence community updated its analysis on the main questions related to the origins of covid, to address whether the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid, was the result of natural exposure to an infected animal or a laboratory-associated incident. “All organisms continue to consider that both natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,” indicates the report, which summarizes the different positions.
The National Intelligence Council and four other intelligence agencies estimate that the initial human infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an infected animal carrying SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor, a virus that would likely be more similar. 99% to SARS-CoV-2.
Instead, the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) consider a laboratory-associated incident to be the most likely cause of the first human SARS-CoV-2 infection, albeit for different reasons.
For their part, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and another agency remain tight-lipped to determine the exact origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as they believe both hypotheses are based on important assumptions or face problems with conflicting reports. .
What “almost all” the agencies do agree on is that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically manipulated. Most organisms consider that it was not adapted in the laboratory; although some point out that they cannot reach a conclusion about it. Of course, all the organisms consider that SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon.
Detailing the information available on the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the report notes that intelligence agencies believe that, before the pandemic, its scientists carried out extensive research on coronaviruses, including animal sampling and genetic analysis. “We continue to have no indication that pre-pandemic research stocks included SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor, or direct evidence of a specific research-related incident involving personnel prior to the pandemic. that could have caused the covid pandemic, ”says the text.
The United States has concluded that some Institute scientists genetically engineered coronaviruses using common laboratory practices. However, it has no information to indicate that any of the Institute’s genetic engineering work involved SARS-CoV-2, a close progenitor, or a stem virus that is sufficiently related to have been the source of the pandemic.
The report It adds that scientists at the Institute of Virology created chimeras, or combinations, of SARS-type coronaviruses through genetic engineering, attempted to clone other unrelated infectious viruses, and used reverse genetic cloning techniques on SARS-like coronaviruses. He also says that some of the coronavirus genetic engineering projects involved techniques that could make it difficult to detect intended changes. A 2017 dissertation by a WIV student showed that reverse genetic cloning techniques, standard techniques used in advanced molecular laboratories, left no trace of genetically modified SARS-like coronaviruses, he says.
Accident risk
The possibility of an accident is still very much alive in the report. Although there is no record of any specific biosafety incident leading to the pandemic, “some researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology probably did not use adequate biosafety precautions for at least part of the time before the pandemic in handling virus-like coronaviruses.” SARS, which increased the risk of accidental exposure to the viruses,” he says.
the brief report also addresses another thorny issue, as required by the law approved in March, but without shedding too much light. Several Institute researchers fell ill in the fall of 2019 with some of their symptoms consistent with covid, although they were not diagnosed with the disease. “The intelligence community continues to believe that this information does not support or refute any of the hypotheses about the origins of the pandemic because the researchers’ symptoms could have been caused by a number of diseases and some of the symptoms were not consistent with covid. -19″, says the report.
US intelligence has no indication that any of those researchers have been hospitalized due to symptoms consistent with covid. One of the researchers may have been hospitalized in this period for treatment of a non-respiratory medical condition, he notes.
For their part, the Chinese authorities investigated the Institute in early 2020 and took blood samples from the scientists. The United States recalls that according to the World Health Organization’s March 2021 public report, Institute employees, including Shi Zhengli, who heads the laboratory group conducting coronavirus research, stated that all samples of laboratory employees tested negative for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.
Although several researchers fell slightly ill in the fall of 2019, they experienced a range of symptoms consistent with colds or allergies with associated symptoms other than covid, and some of them were confirmed to have had other illnesses, the text adds. “While some of these investigators had historically conducted research on animal respiratory viruses, we cannot confirm whether any of them handled live viruses in the work they did before becoming ill,” the text concludes before a glossary of definitions.
The conclusion is that there is no conclusion.
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