JOE Biden has reportedly been told that US intelligence still doesn’t know if Covid-19 originated in a Chinese lab as he received an “inconclusive” report on Tuesday.
The president tasked intelligence officials in May with producing a report that could bring us “closer to a definitive conclusion” on exactly how the virus formed.
However, despite the 90-day rush to analyze available information and dig up new clues, there is no clear consensus, officials familiar with the investigation told the Washington Post.
Biden ordered the investigation after a May report said that intelligence agencies couldn’t come to a consensus on how the virus formed.
There were two possibilities: the once widely accepted theory that it spread from animals to humans in Wuhan, China, and a second theory that the virus was leaked from a Chinese lab.
Former President Donald Trump alleged that the virus was formed in the Wuhan lab last year, without any conclusive evidence.
He was widely slammed for referring to the virus by nicknames like the “China virus.”
However, the May report said that one intelligence agency was leaning towards the lab leak theory, while two others believed the virus came from animals.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that the latest report would not likely be conclusive due to China blocking earlier international efforts to gather key information about Covid-19, people familiar with the investigation said.
One official said the report would likely lead to additional questions that investigators will go on to look into.
“It’s basically impossible to have a proper investigation if one of the main parties doesn’t want to cooperate,” said Brookings Institution senior fellow Thomas Wright.
“We need to proceed as if both hypotheses are true.”
Since it was first detected in Wuhan in December 2019, Covid has killed 4.6million people around the world, according to the latest Reuters tally.
US agencies started looking into the origin of the virus shortly after the first cases were detected.
Initially, intelligence agencies strongly believed that the virus formed naturally.
A team led by the World Health Organization (WHO) said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.
Still, China has reportedly not given US researchers the kind of access to the Wuhan virology lab that officials believe they need to be able to make definitive conclusions about the virus’s origins.
