A classified document delivered to President Biden
Joe BidenUS ‘intellectual report on the origins of COVID-19 is inconclusive: NBC WaPo correspondent: history will remember Afghan retreat as “very dark period” Night defense and national security: cry for deadline Biden in Afghanistan MORE on Tuesday it revealed that the intelligence community could not identify any definitive source for the virus causing COVID-19, the Washington Post reported.
Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told the media that the intelligence findings were inconclusive and unable to pinpoint the exact source of the virus, including the initially accepted theory that the virus would likely pass. from animals to humans, not even if it was filtered. as a result of a laboratory accident.
The report follows Biden’s May request that the intelligence community “redouble its efforts” in reaching an official determination on the origins of COVID-19 and reporting to it in 90 days.
Biden said in a statement at the time that he wanted intelligence officials to include “areas of further research that may be needed, including specific questions for China. ”
U.S. officials, who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity because the report has not been released to the public, said the intelligence community would go on to declassify components of the report. in the coming days.
The Hill has contacted the White House to comment.
The inconclusive results reported come later Director of National Intelligence April Haines
April HainesUS ‘intellectual report on the origins of COVID-19 is inconclusive: WaPo This week: Biden faces crucial moment in Capitol Hill disaster in Afghanistan, puts intelligence under control MORE he told Yahoo! News in a June interview that the intelligence community would probably never have “High confidence” about the origins of COVID-19.
“We hope to find a smoking gun,” he said at the time, but noted that “it’s a challenge to do that.”
“It can happen, but maybe not,” he added.
Haines, who said dozens of analysts and intelligence officials were involved in the intelligence review, noted that researchers have largely focused on two theories: human contact with an animal. infected and laboratory accident.
“I don’t know between these two plausible theories what the correct answer is,” Haines told Yahoo in June. “But I’ve listened to analysts and I really see why they perceive these two theories as being in dispute with each other and why it’s very difficult for them to evaluate one over the other.”
Although the theory of laboratory leaks was initially rejected by many in the scientific community before the pandemic, more have come to regard it as a plausible explanation.
However, scientists have not yet found definitive evidence linking the virus to a laboratory, nor have they found any firm evidence to show that it was first transmitted to humans from animals.
Biden and others have called on China to be more direct in providing access to information about the initial outbreak of the virus in the country, and officials point out that internal control by Chinese authorities is a major reason for investigators’ impossibility. to reach a definitive conclusion.