COVID-19 'not developed' as a biological weapon: US Intelligence Community
(Sourced from PTI)
SARS-CoV-2 was "not developed" as a biological weapon, the US intelligence community has concluded in a report, with President Joe Biden reiterating the allegation that China continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information about the origins of the virus. SARS-CoV-2 probably emerged and infected humans through initial small-scale exposure, the Director of National Intelligence said in a report.
The report was prepared on the direction of the president and it added that the small-scale exposure occurred no later than November 2019 with the first known cluster of COVID-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019. However, there was no unanimity among the Intelligence Community (IC) on the origins of the coronavirus.
"The virus wasn't developed as a biological weapon. Most agencies also assess with low confidence that SARS-CoV-2 probably wasn't genetically engineered; however, two agencies believe there was not sufficient evidence to make an assessment, either way," said the unclassified version of the report. The IC also assessed that China's officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged.
All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident, the report said. 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, it said.
Meanwhile, acknowledging the report, Biden said his administration will do everything it can to trace the roots of this outbreak that has caused so much pain and death around the world so that they can take every necessary precaution to prevent its repetition.
Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in China, "yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it," he said. To this day, China continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, even as the toll of this pandemic continues to rise, Biden alleged.
