The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday afternoon declassified the findings of the U.S. Intelligence Community's investigation into the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic — and the results are less than conclusive as published in the Friday news dump release of the report.
Holy Friday news dump, Batman pic.twitter.com/UA2DhhRzab
— Alex Ward (@alexbward) August 27, 2021
The "key takeaways" listed in the now-declassified report summary include the conclusion that COVID exposure first began "no later than November 2019" in Wuhan, China — debunking the Chinese Communist Party's attempts to pass blame for the pandemic's origin to America or other countries.
The IC assesses that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019 with the first known cluster of COVID-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In addition, the IC was able to reach broad agreement on several other key issues. We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon. Most agencies also assess with low confidence that SARS-CoV-2 probably was not genetically engineered; however, two agencies believe there was not sufficient evidence to make an assessment either way. Finally, the IC assesses China’s officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged.
And while the Intelligence Community concluded that the first cluster of cases popped up in Wuhan, "the IC remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19."
Some IC elements and the National Intelligence Council "assess with low confidence that the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal infected with it." On the other hand, the report says that "One IC element assesses with moderate confidence that the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
And additional three IC elements "remain unable to coalesce around either explanation without additional information, with some analysts favoring natural origin, others a laboratory origin, and some seeing the hypotheses as equally likely."
According to the IC's report, there would be more consensus and conclusive findings if they had more information allowing elements "to determine the specific pathway for initial natural contact with an animal or to determine that a laboratory in Wuhan was handling SARSCoV-2" or "information on the earliest cases that identified a location of interest or occupational exposure."
As of now, though, they don't have such information, which led to the inconclusive report. Part of the blame for this lies with, no surprise here, the Chinese Communist Party.
The IC report explains its frustrations with the CCP:
China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19. Beijing, however, continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries, including the United States. These actions reflect, in part, China’s government’s own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead as well as its frustration the international community is using the issue to exert political pressure on China.
Rather than an actual answer on the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus, the Biden administration's attempt at putting to bed questions of where and how COVID emerged failed, due in part to the Chinese government's lack of transparency. If President Biden thought this report would end questions, it won't. All it did was validate and make official the rational theory that a global pandemic may have originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, as a result of a research project gone awry. With such an inconclusive finding, Biden still has work to do if he wants to convince the American people that he's prepared to handle another pandemic outbreak.
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