In yet another Friday news dump by the Biden administration, the Director of National Intelligence released its declassified report on "Potential Links Between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Origin of the COVID-19 Pandemic" known to the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) as required by the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023.
Clocking in at just 10 pages long — including the cover page, table of contents, executive summary, and three pages of definitions — the report contained mostly information that was already known or believed to be true by lawmakers and many Americans. Here are the report's main takeaways:
The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) collaborated with the CCP's People's Liberation Army:
Although the WIV is independent of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the IC assesses that WIV personnel have worked with scientists associated with the PLA on public health-related research and collaborated on biosafety and biosecurity projects. Information available to the IC indicates that some of the research conducted by the PLA and WIV included work with several viruses, including coronaviruses, but no known viruses that could plausibly be a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2. For example, PLA researchers have used WIV laboratories for virology and vaccine-related work.
The WIV worked extensively with bats and coronaviruses:
The WIV probably maintains one of the world’s largest repositories of bat samples, which has enabled its coronavirus research and related public health support. Information available to the IC indicates that the WIV first possessed SARS-CoV-2 in late December 2019, when WIV researchers isolated and identified the virus from samples from patients diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown causes.
- In 2013, the WIV collected animal samples from which they identified the bat coronavirus RaTG13, which is 96.2 percent similar to the COVID-19 virus.By 2018, the WIV had sequenced almost all of RaTG13, which is the second closest known whole genome match to SARS-CoV-2, after BANAL-52, which is 96.8 percent similar. Neither of these viruses is close enough to SARS-CoV-2 to be a direct progenitor.
- Since 2019, some WIV researchers analyzed pangolin samples to better understand disease outbreaks in these animals.
- By the end of 2019, the WIV maintained distinct teams focused on MERS and SARS-related coronaviruses. Both teams separately used transgenic mouse models to better understand how the viruses infect humans as well as related vaccine and therapeutics research. The WIV then shifted to support broader public health efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
WIV researchers' projects dealt with genetic engineering of coronaviruses:
- Scientists at the WIV have created chimeras, or combinations, of SARS-like coronaviruses through genetic engineering, attempted to clone other unrelated infectious viruses, and used reverse genetic cloning techniques on SARS like coronaviruses.
- Some of the WIV’s genetic engineering projects on coronaviruses involved techniques that could make it difficult to detect intentional changes. A 2017dissertation by a WIV student showed that reverse genetic cloning techniques—which are standard techniques used in advanced molecular laboratories—left no traces of genetic modification of SARS-like coronaviruses.
The "biosafety" precautions at the WIV were lacking:
- Nearly a year after the accreditation of the WIV’s BSL-4 laboratory in 2017, China’s decisions of which pathogens required higher biocontainment protocols remained opaque, while the facility had a shortage of appropriately trained personnel...
- As of January 2019, WIV researchers performed SARS like coronavirus experiments in BSL-2 laboratories, despite acknowledgements going back to 2017 of these virus’ ability to directly infect humans through their spike protein and early 2019 warnings of the danger of this practice. Separately, the WIV’s plan to conduct analysis of potential epidemic viruses from pangolin samples in fall 2019, suggests the researchers sought to isolate live viruses.
- An inspection of the WIV’s high-containment laboratories in 2020—only months after the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak’s emergence—identified a need to update aging equipment, a need for additional disinfectant equipment, and improvements to ventilation systems. As this inspection occurred in the midst of the WIV’s crisis response to the COVID-19 outbreak, these findings are not necessarily indicative of WIV’s biosafety status prior to the outbreak.
About those WIV scientists who got sick in late 2019...
- We have no indications that any of these researchers were hospitalized because of the symptoms consistent with COVID-19. One researcher may have been hospitalized in this timeframe for treatment of a non-respiratory medical condition.
- China’s National Security Commission investigated the WIV in early 2020 and took blood samples from WIV researchers. According to the World Health Organization's March 2021 public report, WIV officials including Shi Zhengli—who leads the WIV laboratory group that conducts coronavirus research—stated lab employee samples all tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
While several WIV researchers fell mildly ill in Fall 2019, they experienced a range of symptoms consistent with colds or allergies with accompanying symptoms typically not associated with COVID-19, and some of them were confirmed to have been sick with other illnesses unrelated to COVID-19. While some of these researchers had historically conducted research into animal respiratory viruses, we are unable to confirm if any of them handled live viruses in the work they performed prior to falling ill.
With lots of "we are unable to confirm," "not necessarily indicative" and "no known [fill in the blank]" in this latest report, it's clear that the CCP's decision to wall itself off from the United States, World Heath Organization, and other researchers who were seeking information on the origins of COVID did lasting damage to the world's ability to truly get to the bottom of where the COVID-19 pandemic began and, more importantly, how to prevent another global disaster like it from happening.
As the DNI report dumped on Friday reiterated, American intel agencies still aren't even in agreement:
- The National Intelligence Council and four other IC agencies assess that the initial human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was caused by natural exposure to an infected animal that carried SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor, a virus that probably would be more than 99 percent similar to SARSCoV-2.
- The Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation assess that a laboratory-associated incident was the most likely cause of the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2, although for different reasons.
- The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting.
- Almost all IC agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically engineered. Most agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not laboratory-adapted; some are unable to make a determination. All IC agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon.
That said, some of those agencies have updated their conclusions about the origins of COVID, some as recently as February, meaning the latest report from the Director of National Intelligence could soon be out of date too.
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