U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China’s leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according to results released last week of a review ordered by President Joe Biden.
According to an unclassified summary, four members of the U.S. intelligence community say with low confidence that the virus was initially transmitted from an animal to a human. A fifth intelligence agency believes with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab. Analysts do not believe the virus was developed as a bioweapon and most agencies believe the virus was not genetically engineered.
The cause of the coronavirus remains an urgent public health and security concern worldwide.
The scientific consensus remains that the virus most likely migrated from animals in what’s known as a zoonotic transmission. So-called “spillover events” occur in nature, and there are at least two coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.
In a statement, Biden said China had obstructed efforts to investigate the virus “from the beginning.”
China’s embassy in Washington hit back with a lengthy statement saying the U.S. had “fabricated” the report and invoking mistaken American intelligence about weapons of mass destruction prior to the Iraq War.
“The report by the intelligence community is based on presumption of guilt on the part of China, and it is only for scapegoating China,” the embassy said. “Such a practice will only disturb and sabotage international cooperation on origin-tracing and on fighting the pandemic, and has been widely opposed by the international community.” MDT/AP
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