U.S intelligence has confirmed that they still cannot rule out the lab-leak scenario as the trigger for the coronavirus pandemic. While scientists have called the scenario unlikely and that humans were first infected through an animal host, the U.S wants to sort through intelligence about the Chinese government’s initial handling of the outbreak.
A spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence told media sources that the agency will continue to “rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
Intelligence officials have also said they’ve seen classified information that has not been made public regarding actions the Chinese government took that were designed to obscure the origins of COVID-19 and conceal its early impact. It has raised enough circumstantial questions to avoid ruling out the lab scenario and said it “paints a picture” of Chinese officials trying to hide the “burgeoning pandemic” from the outside world.
U.S officials also found it suspicious that the virus outbreak in Wuhan came from bats that are typically found in caves a thousand miles away from that city. The Wuhan Institute of Virology even removed a database of 22,000 virus samples from public view. They noted it was for “security reasons” and they have not allowed any detailed looks into the lab’s notes or other records.
Investigators with the World Health Organization claimed that it was “extremely unlikely” COVID-19 came from the Wuhan bio laboratory, despite reaching their conclusion after investigating for less than a month.
The director-general of WHO, however, reversed course just days later by saying that “all hypotheses remain open and require further analysis and study.” “The expert team is still working on its final report and we look forward to receiving both the report and a full briefing. Some questions have been raised as to whether some hypotheses have been discarded. I want to clarify that all hypotheses remain open and require further study,” he said.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, even voiced distrust with the credibility of the WHO, despite Biden restoring its U.S funding. He said the Biden Administration had “deep concerns” about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them. He said it was imperative for those reports to be independent and free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government.
China is falling short of the mark when it comes to providing the information necessary to the global community. Former President Trump said this lack of transparency was a profound problem that will continue but nobody wanted to listen. China is starting to become America’s equal in economic terms, global influence, and military power. It wouldn’t be surprising that they would try to suppress the truth about the origins of the virus, but everyone else was too busy calling Trump “xenophobic” and “racist” to notice.
