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US Intel Report Reveals No Incident Occurred at Wuhan Lab That Could Have Caused Pandemic

© National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIHColourized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (greenish-brown) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (pink), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured and colour-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Colourized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (greenish-brown) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (pink), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured and colour-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. - Sputnik International, 1920, 24.06.2023
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Cleared by Congress, legislation later signed by US President Joe Biden in March ordered the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to declassify information regarding the potential origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The measure forced the DNI to declassify its report within 90 days.
A newly declassified report by the Director of National Intelligence revealed the US intelligence community found that no incident that would have prompted the COVID-19 pandemic occurred at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
The Friday-released report outlined that while WIV officials conducted extensive research on a variety of coronaviruses, there is "no indication" the facility ever had samples of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 "or a close progenitor."
The findings specifically stated that there were no signs of "any direct evidence that a specific research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel before the pandemic that could have caused the COVID pandemic."
It was further detailed in the declassified report that there was no evidence to suggest the WIV carried out any "genetic engineering work" with the COVID-19 virus, and that all intelligence agencies determined "SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon."

"Information available to the [intelligence community] indicates that some of the research conducted by the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] and WIV included work with several viruses, including coronaviruses, but no known viruses that could plausibly be a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2," the report stated, acknowledging that the WIV was independent of the PLA but occasionally worked in conjunction.

The National Intelligence Council and four other intel agencies concluded SARS-CoV-2 "most likely was caused by natural exposure to an infected animal," adding that the WIV did not have a sample of the virus until late December 2019.
According to the DNI report, the CIA and company were effectively "unable to determine the precise origin" of the outbreak. Additionally, it was noted there were no signs any of the WIV researchers were hospitalized for COVID symptoms.
This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). - Sputnik International, 1920, 20.03.2023
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The report, however, did not specifically look into whether the virus emerged at other facilities in Wuhan, or analyze the merits of hypotheses that it emerged from a lab leak or from natural causes.
Since the report's release, Republicans have come forward to condemn its findings and the government's lack of transparency. Both the Republican chairs of the House Intelligence Committee and the subcommittee on the pandemic voiced their earlier findings that backed the lab leak claims.
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