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A newly declassified U.S. intelligence report states that there ’s no grounds linking the first of the COVID-19pandemicto enquiry or biosafety incidents at the Wuhan Institute of Virology , an institute located near the site of thefirst report outbreak of the novel coronavirus .
The fresh report , in public released on Friday ( June 23 ) evening , comes from the role ofAvril Haines , the Director of National Intelligence . The 10 - page document sum up the U.S. intelligence community ’s understanding of the research potentiality and action of the Wuhan Institute of Virology ( WIV ) conduct up to and in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic .
Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus arrive by car at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on 26 January 2025.
" This report does not address the merits of the two most probable pandemic origins guess " — that SARS - CoV-2 , the computer virus that causes COVID-19 , shed over from fauna to humans or that the virus " leak " from a laboratory , the text file reads . However , the study does cast water on the belief that actions taken by WIV researcher somehow trigger the coronavirus pandemic .
Prior to the pandemic , WIV researchers did work with coronaviruses but none that could plausibly be precursor to SARS - CoV-2 , the composition states . The same goes for researchers associated withChina ’s People ’s Liberation Army , who sometimes expend WIV facility for virology and vaccine - related work and have get together with WIV staff on public health initiatives of this nature .
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WIV ’s research on coronaviruses involved genetic psychoanalysis and sampling virus from animals , such as bats . But again , there ’s " no meter reading " that the institute own any sample distribution of SARS - CoV-2 or a potential precursor prior to the pandemic .
" entropy usable to the IC [ intelligence community of interests ] indicates that the WIV first own SARS - CoV-2 in later December 2019 , when WIV research worker isolated and identify the virus from samples from patients diagnose with pneumonia of unknown causes , " the report state .
There is also no " direct evidence " that a enquiry - related incident involving WIV personnel department occurred before the pandemic and could have sparked the global irruption , the story notes . That say , WIV personnel " credibly did not use fair to middling biosafety precaution at least some of the metre " prior to the pandemic , and the lab had been working to better some of its biosafety measure , equipment and training practices prior to the outbreak ’s start .
As part of their enquiry , WIV staff have genetically engineered coronaviruses using " vulgar research laboratory practices , " but there ’s no reading that the institute has done such research with SARS - CoV-2 , a closely related precursor , or a " backbone " virus that is close related enough to SARS - CoV-2 to have been the source of the pandemic .
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In increase to examine the inquiry direct at WIV , the news report focalise onseveral cases of mild illness among WIV researchersthat occurred in fall 2019 . These illnesses involved some symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and some unrelated symptoms . The intelligence community has concluded that the employee ' illnesses neither funding nor refute either of the pandemic origin hypotheses , in part , because the reported symptoms may have resulted from other conditions , such as allergy or the mutual cold .
At this time , U.S. intelligence agencies are split as to whether they privilege the spillover or research laboratory leak surmisal , but five have concluded that the former scenario is the most potential , the report notes . Two agencies — the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation — have substantiate the lab making water theory , while two more have said they ’re ineffectual to mold the exact origin of the pandemic .
Still , " all agencies continue to assess that both a raw and testing ground - relate origin remain plausible hypothesis to explain the first human infection . " But crucially , all agencies have concluded that SARS - CoV-2 was not educate as a biologic weapon , the paper notes .
