Intelligence of 5 countries contradicts Trump administration on origin of Covid-19
According to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, there is currently no evidence to prove that the SARS-CoV-2 virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Contradicting the Trump administration's allegations
The Guardian newspaper, citing sources from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance of 5 countries (US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand), has just said that there is currently no evidence to prove that the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the Covid-19 epidemic escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. This conclusion contradicts the recent accusation of the White House that there is increasing evidence that the pandemic originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.
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| Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Photo: EPA. |
Sources also stressed that a “15-page dossier” published by Australia’s Telegraph newspaper, which accused China of deliberately concealing the outbreak, was not based on Five Eyes intelligence sources as the newspaper reported.
Earlier on May 3, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “I can say that there is a large amount of evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.” Mr. Pompeo did not provide evidence to support his view. However, information circulating for more than a month in the US, UK and Australia has raised questions about safety at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has long specialized in studying coronaviruses in horseshoe bats.
Some have speculated that workers at the lab may not have used adequate protective equipment, or that a researcher may have come into contact with bat urine but later developed no symptoms. However, the sources said there was no evidence that a lab leak could have caused the Covid-19 pandemic.
The accusation even goes further, claiming that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was genetically modified in Wuhan, despite no conclusion from the scientific community or intelligence agencies to prove this.
According to American scientists working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the safety standards at this lab are equivalent to those in Western laboratories. Therefore, the most popular theory is that the virus was transmitted to humans through live animal markets in China.
Several investigations are underway.
The Australian Telegraph has been focusing its attention on the Wuhan lab for days, with a report over the weekend citing a 15-page dossier that the newspaper said was compiled from Western governments concerned about the outbreak. The report asserted that China deliberately concealed or destroyed evidence of the Covid-19 outbreak. The Telegraph's report comes as Britain and other members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance are investigating the incident.
Australian intelligence sources later said the report was based on open documents in the public domain. An Australian intelligence official told the Guardian that the information appearing in the Telegraph was likely to have originated in the US.
Downing Street said the UK did not comment on the above intelligence issues, although previously, some British sources confirmed that they did not recognize the 15-page document cited by the Telegraph based on confidential information provided by the country's intelligence agency.
“There are clearly questions about the origins and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that need to be answered, so we can ensure we are better prepared for future global pandemics,” a Home Office spokesperson said.
In an interview with National Geographic, published yesterday (May 4), Dr. Anthony Fauci - America's leading infectious disease expert - also stated that he does not believe the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated from a laboratory.
“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and the scientific evidence that is available, it seems to be very unlikely that it was intentionally engineered. I don’t believe that it escaped from a laboratory and was released into society in any way. Everything about the evolution of the virus suggests that it evolved in nature and then jumped species.”
The US intelligence community said it is still working to “determine whether the outbreak originated from human contact with animals infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus or whether it was due to an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.” However, the US intelligence community’s statement affirmed that the virus was not man-made or genetically modified./.