“All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and the laboratory-associated incident,” the intelligence community wrote.
The two-page unclassified report was released Friday by the intelligence community after Biden had called on intelligence agencies to “redouble” their efforts to determine how the Covid pandemic began. -19. Biden, who commissioned them to declassify as much of the report as possible, was informed of the investigation earlier this week.
“Until this review is completed, our efforts to understand the origins of this pandemic will not rest,” Biden said in a statement after the summary was released Friday. “We will do everything we can to trace the roots of this outbreak that has caused so much pain and death around the world, so that we can take all necessary precautions to prevent it from happening again.”
In the statement, Biden criticized China for not being more transparent in aiding research and the intelligence community said China’s cooperation would probably be needed to reach a more definitive conclusion.
“There is critical information about the origins of this pandemic in the People’s Republic of China, but from the beginning, Chinese government officials have worked to prevent international researchers and members of the global public health community from access, “Biden said.
Although the research did not come to a conclusive assessment of the origin of the virus, it did overturn some theories. The intelligence community judged, for example, that the Covid-19 was not developed as a biological weapon, as some Republicans had suggested last year. The report says most agencies assessed with little confidence that Covid-19 is also unlikely to be genetically designed.
Agencies divided into theories of origin
Four community intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council assessed, with little confidence, that Covid was likely caused by natural exposure to an animal, according to the summary. However, one agency assessed with moderate confidence that the first human infection was likely the result of a laboratory-associated incident that “probably involved experimentation, animal handling, or sampling by the Wuhan Institute.”
And three agencies said they could not join any of the explanations without additional information.
One of the agencies that did not take a firm stand in one way or another was the CIA, according to a source who was briefed on the content of the classified report.
The intelligence report says the virus likely arose and infected humans due to initial small-scale exposure that occurred later in November 2019.
But the summary says the intelligence community would need more information from the early days of the pandemic to provide “a more definitive explanation of the origin of Covid-19.”
“The IC and the global scientific community have no clinical samples or a complete understanding of the epidemiological data of the first cases of Covid-19,” the intelligence community wrote.
China’s unwillingness to cooperate hampered the intelligence community’s ability to get answers about the origins of the virus. “China’s cooperation would likely be necessary to arrive at a conclusive assessment of the origins of Covid-19,” the intelligence community said. “Beijing, however, continues to obstruct global research. It is reluctant to share information and blame other countries, including the United States.”
Although the report blames China, it says Chinese officials “had no prior knowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak.”
Closing the window to understand the origins
Officials told CNN this week that intelligence agencies were changing sides in that the theory was more likely as recently as last week.
Biden launched the review on the origins of Covid-19 earlier this year amid growing calls for deep diving after a U.S. intelligence report found that several researchers at the Institute of Virology of Wuhan of China fell ill in November 2019 and had to be hospitalized.
Last month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said they wanted Biden to continue investigating the origins of the virus even after completing the 90-day review.
However, the window to find an answer to the origins of the pandemic could disappear. A team of experts commissioned by the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the opportunity to know where the pandemic began disappears as people’s immune responses fade and evidence of animal bodies disappears.
This story has been updated with additional reports.