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The intelligence agency failed to clarify whether the virus came from an infected animal or a laboratory in China.
U.S. Intelligence Community [IC] Unable to agree on the origin of the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but according to a report, Chinese officials did not “foresee” it before the outbreak in 2019 (PDF) Released on Friday.
In May, US President Joe Biden tried to determine the source and mode of transmission of the virus. These issues aroused the anger of the Chinese government and sparked political debate in the United States. Call Further excavation of US intelligence agencies.
“However, after checking all available intelligence reports and other information, IC still disagrees on the most likely origin of COVID-19,” concluded the non-confidential report issued by the Director of National Intelligence.
The report reads: “All agencies assess that two assumptions are reasonable: natural contact with infected animals and laboratory-related incidents.”
Before Biden asked agencies to “double their efforts to collect and analyze information that might bring us closer to the final conclusion,” the US intelligence community “combined” these two hypotheses earlier this year.
According to the report, four members of the US intelligence community said with insufficient confidence that the virus was originally transmitted from animals to humans. The fifth intelligence agency believed with moderate confidence that the first human infection was related to the laboratory. Analysts do not believe that the virus was developed as a biological weapon.
The intelligence community also concluded that Chinese officials did not know about the virus before the COVID-19 outbreak, but IC and Biden criticized Beijing for obstructing investigations into the origin of the virus.
Biden said in a statement: “The key information about the origin of this epidemic exists in the People’s Republic of China, but from the very beginning, Chinese government officials have been trying to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from obtaining this information. .”.
“Until today, China continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, even if the death toll from this epidemic continues to rise.”
Biden called on China to cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the investigation of the origin of the virus, “including providing all relevant data and evidence.”
Former WHO Learn The conclusion released in March concluded that the virus was most likely transmitted from bats to humans, and it is “very unlikely” that it was leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
A group of 14 countries Raise concerns Regarding the WHO report, the reason was the delay and the inability to fully access the data, and the WHO chief also called for further investigation into the theory that the outbreak was the result of laboratory leaks. China strongly denies this accusation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry be attacked U.S. investigation before the report is released. The Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fu Cong, said at a briefing for foreign journalists, “Scapegoat for China cannot whitewash the United States.”
“If they want to accuse China baselessly, they’d better be prepared to accept China’s counterattack,” he said.
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