(LR) Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, Director of the National Security Agency Gen. Paul Nakasone, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Director of the CIA William Burns, and Director of the FBI Christopher Wray testify at the Hearing of the House Select Committee on World Threat Intelligence on Capitol Hill on March 9, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Intelligence agency leaders have testified on a big selection of issues, including China, Russia, the origins of Covid-19, and TikTok.
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An extended-awaited government report on the origins of Covid-19 provided latest details about the findings of the US intelligence community, but didn’t conclusively determine whether the source of the coronavirus was an exposure to an infected animal or an incident in a laboratory.
“All agencies proceed to evaluate that each natural and laboratory origins remain plausible hypotheses to elucidate first human infection,” 10-page declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said.
The report outlined divisions inside the Intelligence Community.
While the National Intelligence Council and 4 unnamed agencies said natural exposure to an infected animal was the most likely, the Department of Energy and FBI assessment were that the lab-related incident was a more likely scenario for a primary human infection.
Meanwhile, the CIA and the unidentified agency are “still unable to find out the exact source of the COVID-19 pandemic as each hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or run into difficulties with conflicting reports,” the report states.
But “just about all” intelligence agencies agreed that the virus was not genetically modified, and all agencies agreed that Covid was not manufactured as a bioweapon.
Congress passed law earlier this yr, he requested intelligence declassify information regarding potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the pandemic.
The report shed light on the Wuhan institute that was at the center of the hypothesis that the virus escaped from the lab and either began infecting humans or was transferred to humans from an animal.
In 2021, a U.S. intelligence report identified three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology who sought treatment at the hospital after falling unwell in November 2019. after escaping from the lab.
The intelligence community in March expanded its investigation into Covid-19, examining whether the first human infection with the virus was the result of natural contact with an infected animal or a lab-related incident, in response to Friday’s report.
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said the release of the report reflects President Joe Biden’s commitment to “declassify and share as much information related to the origin of COVID-19 as possible while protecting sources and methods.” The spokesman added that “attending to the bottom of the origins” of Covid stays a top priority for the president.