After the passing of a Congress bill that gave all US intelligence agencies 90 days to make public their reports on the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the ODNI report was declassified on Friday, revealing nothing conclusive.
The FBI and Energy Department
Four agencies conclude that the virus was transferred from animals to humans, but two agencies, the FBI and Energy Department, support the lab leak theory that suggests it was leaked from a lab. The only thing all agree upon is that it was not intended to be a biological weapon. The report says:
“The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, as both [natural and lab] hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting.”
Regarding the lab leak theory, it is known that the WIV and Chinese army where working on coronaviruses for matters of public health, but none that could have mutated or resulted in Covid-19. Some have noted that WIV scientists created ‘chimeras’ which are combinations of coronaviruses and that researchers may not have taken proper biosafety precautions. However, US intelligence is unaware of any specific biosafety breach incident that caused the pandemic to start.
John Ratcliffe, former US Director of National Intelligence, says that “The lab-leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence and common sense”. China vehemently denies the lab leak theory though, and a joint report made by China and the World Health Organization determined that it was “extremely unlikely.”
