The Energy Department has now concluded with “low confidence” that the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic likely began after an unintentional lab leak in China, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited a classified intelligence report provided to the White House and members of Congress.
There are two competing theories about what triggered the COVID-19 pandemic in China: that the virus passed from animals to humans in a market and that it leaked from a lab where researchers were reading coronavirus. None have had enough evidence so far to be conclusive.
Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported that the Department of Energy, in presenting new intelligence, had changed its stance on the origins of the pandemic, but the conclusion was weak. USA TODAY may simply not independently verify reports.
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Here’s what we know:
The first is that, like many other known infections, the virus that causes COVID has passed from animals to humans, likely at a market in Wuhan, China, that sells live animals.
Support for this comes from the herbal history of the viruses and a trace of the virus’s genetics traced from other people who had health problems at the beginning of the initial outbreak.
The moment is that the virus was released through researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a clinical laboratory a few kilometers from the rainy market. In this scenario, researchers reading the SARS-CoV2 virus, or a similar virus, have become infected, transmitting to others.
That’s because researchers in the lab were known to examine coronaviruses in the same circle of relatives as SARS-CoV-2 and lab injuries occurred in the past.
The Chinese government cleaned up the rainy market, destroying evidence before others had a chance to read about it, and does not appear to have released data on those who had health problems before, fueling the hypothesis that they have something to hide.
Several scientists came out strongly in favor of the herb origin theory, especially early in the outbreak, while others have called for more data before drawing a conclusion.
As of 2021: the real theory of the COVID-19 lab leak?USA. The U. S. is no longer spying on China like it used to be
National security adviser Jake Sullivan refused to verify or deny the Energy Department’s news to the media.
Sullivan told CNN on Sunday that President Biden had asked the Department of Energy’s national laboratories to “incorporate themselves into this assessment” because he “wants to use all the equipment to perceive what happened here. “
“Right now, there’s nothing definitive that has come out of the intelligence community,” he told CNN Sunday on “State of the Union. “
“There are a variety of perspectives on the intelligence network,” he said. “Some elements of the intelligence network have reached conclusions on the one hand, others on the other. Several of them said they simply didn’t have enough data to be safe. “
The FBI is the only other federal firm to publicly conclude that the pandemic began in a Wuhan lab, a position it took with “moderate confidence” in 2021. Four other federal agencies concluded that the pandemic began with herbal transmission, and two agencies are undecided.
Update: House Oversight Subcommittee on Investigating COVID Origins and Wuhan Lab Funding
Former Surgeon General: We will never know the full fact about the origins of COVID-19. Political disputes will be of no use.
From 2021: WHO to end ‘extremely unlikely’ theory that COVID originated in Wuhan lab
New report: There are at least 500 coronaviruses. We want to expand next-generation vaccines now, experts say
Opinion: Could a twist of fate have caused COVID?Why is the leak theory not rejected in the Wuhan laboratory?