COVID-19 pandemic. Until the report was released, prominent science journals had banded together to attack any news organization or person who dared to say that the deadly virus behind the pandemic began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China\u2019s sole high-security laboratory that the new intelligence showed was not only culpable in the pandemic but was linked to the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military, and its secret biological warfare program.<\/span><\/p>\nEvidence in the report revealed that <\/span>several workers at the Wuhan institute, where research on deadly bat coronaviruses is conducted, were sickened in the autumn of 2019 with COVID-19-like symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\nAs for the PLA, their work at the lab was carried out as part of a covert biological warfare program. The report debunked repeated lies by Chinese officials who have denined any link existed between the lab and disease outbreak. Worse, the Chinese launched another disinformation campaign, this time falsely alleging that it was the United States that brought the COVID virus to China, a charge denied by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n\n\n
The lab illnesses were detected prior to the first publicized case of COVID-19 in Wuhan <\/span>in early December 2019, but China refused<\/span> to disclose what happened to the workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n\u201cAccidental infections in labs have caused several previous virus outbreaks in China<\/span> and elsewhere, including a 2004 SARS outbreak in Beijing<\/span>\u00a0that infected nine people, killing one,\u201d the report states.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThis raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli\u2019s public claim that there was \u2018zero infection\u2019 among the WIV\u2019s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nDespite the overwhelming circumstantial evidence the pandemic began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, for months until the State Department report was published the prevailing view was that COVID came from an infected wild animal that passed the virus to humans.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on my experience and understanding of the science, it\u2019s hard to believe this is a naturally occurring phenomenon,\u201d said Robert G. Darling, a medical doctor and expert on biological weapons formerly with the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI think somebody [in Wuhan<\/span>] caught their experiment,\u201d said Dr. Darling, now chief medical officer for Patronus Medical.<\/span><\/p>\nWilliam Lan, a former associate chief medical officer at the Homeland Security Department, noted that the State Department <\/span>report does not accuse China’<\/span>s communist leadership of releasing the virus intentionally.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cBut the circumstantial \u2014 and more than circumstantial \u2014 evidence of some relation to WIV is very strong,\u201d said Dr. Lang <\/span>now with the health service WorldClinic.<\/span><\/p>\nMs. Shi, the WIV scientist dubbed the \u201cBat Woman of China<\/span>\u201d for her work on bat coronaviruses similar to the one that causes COVID-19, co-authored a scientific study in 2015 that mentions the laboratory manipulation of bat viruses as part of studying how they infect humans.<\/span><\/p>\nThe\u00a0<\/span>U.S. intellig<\/span>ence<\/span> report said Chinese authorities for more than a year systematically prevented a thorough investigation into the origins of the pandemic and instead devoted \u201cenormous resources to deceit and disinformation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nA\u00a0<\/span>World Health Organization<\/span>\u00a0delegation to\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span> was blocked from entering the country first in the spring of 2020 and again in January 2021. <\/span>Beijing<\/span> then relented and permitted a team to visit.<\/span><\/p>\nThe visit was sabotaged from the very beginning by the inclusion of Peter Daszak, president of the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance, who is would be revealed was paid by the U.S. government to conduct bat virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, working closely with Shi.<\/p>\n
Daszak would not be called to account until May 2024 when a special House select subcommittee charged with investigating failed efforts to determine the origin of the virus heard testimony from the virus researcher.<\/p>\n
EcoHealth Alliance engaged in dangerous experimental virus work in China that was funded by the federal government, a report by <\/span>the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEcoHealth used taxpayer dollars to facilitate gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in Wuhan at the [Wuhan Institute of Virology], contrary to previous public statements, including those by [former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] Dr. Anthony Fauci,\u201d the report says.<\/span><\/p>\nDespite conducting the dangerous virus work, EcoHealth Alliance continued to receive federal funds of about $16 million annually.<\/span><\/p>\nThe federal government halted the payments days after the May hearing. The Department of Health and Human Services agreed with the Select Subcommittee that EcoHealth Alliance be banned from receiving any funds.<\/p>\n
Daszak emerged early in the pandemic as an activist denying that the COVID virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and was leaked to the general public. EcoHealth had extensive ties to the laboratory for years before the pandemic outbreak and was involved in extensive risky research on potentially deadly virus strains.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n“Dr. Daszak and his organization conducted dangerous gain-of-function research at the WIV, willfully violated the terms of a multimillion-dollar NIH grant, and placed U.S. national security at risk,\u201d said Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, Ohio Republican,\u00a0 \u201cThis blatant contempt for the American people is reprehensible. It is imperative to establish higher standards of oversight at the NIH.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nEcoHealth used taxpayer dollars to facilitate gain of function research on coronaviruses in Wuhan at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, contrary to previous public statements denying such work, including those by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of NIIAD.<\/span><\/p>\nDaszak testified that he worked with Wuhan virologist Shi Zhengli, dubbed the \u201cbat woman of China\u201d for her role in researching bat coronaviruses. He said the Wuhan Institute of Virology may have conducted bat virus research that was not made public, but continued to insist COVID virus did not leak from the laboratory.<\/span><\/p>\nThe virus, SARS-CoV-2, is a bat coronavirus that FBI and Energy Department intelligence units believe emerged from the Wuhan laboratory. Four other American intelligence agencies said they could not determine the origin of the virus after President Biden ordered a review of what was known.<\/span><\/p>\nChina has failed to provide information on the virus\u2019 origin, including early COVID samples. The communist government instead has accused the United States of causing the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\nGain-of-function research is modifying a biological agent to have new or enhanced activity. Daszak said the term as he defines it relates only to an enhanced ability of a virus to infect humans.<\/span><\/p>\nThe subcommittee report concluded that the federal government process for research grants has \u201cserious and systemic weaknesses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe weaknesses identified by the committees not only place United States taxpayer dollars at risk of waste, fraud and abuse but also risk the national security of the United States,\u201d the report said. \u201cThese weaknesses can only be remedied through both executive and legislative action.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe report accused the Department of Health and Human Services and EcoHealth of obstructing the subcommittee\u2019s investigation.<\/span><\/p>\nThe\u00a0<\/span>State Department<\/span> report acknowledged that the U.S. government has been unable to determine \u201cexactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus \u2014 known as SARS-CoV-2 \u2014 was transmitted initially to humans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe two most likely sources are contact with infected animals or \u201can accident at a laboratory in\u00a0<\/span>Wuhan<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe confusion by U.S. intelligence agencies persisted. In March 2022, Office of Director of National Intelligence released its annual world threat assessment that included a section stating that China had continued to block investigations into the origin of the COVID virus<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/span>Beijing<\/span> continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information, and blame other countries, including the United States\u201d for the pandemic that has now killed 6 million people worldwide, according to the unclassified threat assessment report.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIntelligence agencies divided<\/strong><\/p>\nThe report said American intelligence agencies remain divided on the issue. The report also failed to identify the origin of the disease outbreak as Wuhan, <\/span>China, highlighting the growing retrenchment by the administration of President Joe Biden to revert to the failed U.S. policies of the past toward China that sought to avoid all criticism of the communist regime.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe [intelligence community] assesses that the virus probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019,\u201d the report said.<\/span><\/p>\nAll\u00a0<\/span>U.S. intelligence agencies<\/span>\u00a0believe the virus likely emerged from either natural exposure to an infected animal or a \u201claboratory-associated incident,\u201d the report said.<\/span><\/p>\nFour intelligence agencies not identified by name and the DNI\u2019s National Intelligence Council reported \u201cwith low confidence\u201d that the first infection of a person with the COVID-19 disease, caused by SARS-CoV-2, most likely began with natural exposure to an animal \u201cinfected with it or a close progenitor virus \u2014 a virus that probably would be more than 99% similar to SARS-CoV-2.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBy contrast, one intelligence agency reported with moderate confidence that \u201cthe first human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was the result of a laboratory-associated incident, probably involving experimentation, animal handling or sampling by the Wuhan Institute of Virology,\u201d located in the Chinese city.<\/span><\/p>\nDefense officials said the\u00a0<\/span>agency<\/span>\u00a0leaning toward the laboratory leak theory is the\u00a0<\/span>Defense Intelligence Agency<\/span>, which has conducted ground-breaking research on the virus at the little-known National Center for\u00a0<\/span>Medical Intelligence<\/span>. The center is based at Fort Detrick, Maryland, where the\u00a0<\/span>U.S. government<\/span>\u00a0conducts research into biological weapons.<\/span><\/p>\nThree other intelligence agencies are unable to \u201ccoalesce\u201d on a conclusion on whether the virus came from an animal or the Wuhan lab without additional information, the report said.<\/span><\/p>\nThe report warned that global shortfalls in preparedness for the pandemic and questions about COVID-19 origins and biosecurity at laboratories could lead U.S. adversaries to \u201cconsider options related to biological weapons developments,\u201d the report said.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAs\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>, Iran, and\u00a0<\/span>Russia<\/span>\u00a0continue to publicly tout individual or collaborative efforts to improve biosecurity, they have pushed narratives that further drive threat perceptions, including linking U.S. laboratories abroad to COVID-19 origins, breaches in biosafety, untrustworthy vaccines and biological weapons,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIntelligence agencies expect that propaganda message to be amplified by the three nations at the five-yearly Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention that was to be held in the middle of 2022\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cRapid advances in dual-use technology, including bioinformatics, synthetic biology and genomic editing, could enable development of novel biological weapons that complicate detection, attribution and treatment,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nU.S. officials have said\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>\u00a0is suspected of working secretly on biological weapons genetically designed to attack specific ethnic groups.\u00a0<\/span>Beijing<\/span>\u00a0refused to provide initial samples of COVID-19 and also has not provided records of dangerous virus research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nChinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said the intelligence report is an effort by the\u00a0<\/span>U.S. government<\/span>\u00a0to politicize probes of COVID-19\u2019s origin.\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span> supports efforts to trace the virus, he said.\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWhat we firmly oppose is politicization of origins tracing,\u201d Mr. Liu said<\/span><\/div>\n\u201cThe origins study of the novel coronavirus is a serious and complex scientific issue which should and can only be carried out by global scientists in cooperation,\u201d he added. \u201cThe use of intelligence agencies to trace the origins is in itself an iron-clad proof of politicization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe Chinese government China<\/span>\u00a0initially said the virus began at a wild animal \u201cwet market\u201d in\u00a0<\/span>Wuhan<\/span>, but\u00a0<\/span>Beijing<\/span>\u00a0authorities have been unable to identify an animal host that transmitted the pathogen to humans.<\/span><\/p>\nThe failure to find the host has led many virus experts and intelligence analysts to examine more closely the idea that the virus leaked from the Wuhan laboratory. Skeptics of\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>\u2019s official version say\u00a0<\/span>Beijing<\/span>\u00a0authorities have actively tried to keep the world from knowing what happened.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe Chinese government has destroyed all the evidence from the outbreak because they want to avoid saying it began from a laboratory leak,\u201d said a U.S. official familiar with intelligence reports. \u201c<\/span>China<\/span>\u00a0is trying to sell a story to the world that it began as a naturally occurring event from a wet market in\u00a0<\/span>Wuhan<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nChinese authorities have tried to get\u00a0<\/span>WHO<\/span>\u00a0investigators to identify a credible animal source during their inquiry.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cInstead of focusing on an animal host that probably doesn\u2019t exist, the\u00a0<\/span>W<\/span><\/a>H<\/span>O<\/span><\/a>\u00a0team should be focusing on the labs and biosafety,\u201d the official said.<\/span><\/p>\nThe official said, \u201cIt is very likely this was PLA secret work that went awry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nU.S. intelligence<\/span>\u00a0analysts noted that\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>\u2019s military is engaged in covert development of biological weapons and initial research on such arms would include developing vaccines. At least 2,016\u00a0<\/span>Wuhan<\/span>\u00a0lab researchers experimented with a virus called RaTG13, a bat coronavirus similar to the SARS-CoV-2, the report said.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe WIV has a published record of conducting \u2018gain-of-function\u2019 research to engineer chimeric viruses,\u201d the report said, using the term for synthetic viruses.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cBut the WIV has not been transparent or consistent about its record of studying viruses most similar to the COVID-19 virus, including RaTG13, which it sampled from a cave in Yunnan Province in 2013 after several miners died of SARS-like illness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to the report, a laboratory accident could appear as a natural outbreak if those initially exposed were limited to a few people and spread more easily by those with a lack of initial symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cScientists in\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>\u00a0have researched animal-derived coronaviruses under conditions that increased the risk for accidental and potentially unwitting exposure,\u201d the report said.<\/span><\/p>\nThe report also revealed that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has links to the People\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Liberation Army<\/span>\u00a0and has conducted secret lab research at the institute since 2017.<\/span><\/p>\nAmerican virus experts who have conducted research at the institute denied those claims as a conspiracy theory. Many private virus experts originally dismissed reports that the institute was linked to\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>\u2019s covert biological weapons program.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cDespite the WIV presenting itself as a civilian institution, the United States has determined that the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>\u2019s military,\u201d the report said. \u201cThe WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe report said the U.S. government \u201cfor many years\u201d has publicly voiced concerns about\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>\u2019s biological weapons work that\u00a0<\/span>Beijing<\/span>\u00a0has failed to fully document and has not shown that it had eliminated, despite the requirement to do so under the Biological Weapons Convention.<\/span><\/p>\nThe report said the intelligence disclosures about the WIV \u201cscratch the surface of what is still hidden about COVID-19\u2019s origin in\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAny credible investigation into the origin of COVID-19 demands complete, transparent access to the research labs in\u00a0<\/span>Wuhan<\/span>, including their facilities, samples, personnel, and records,\u201d the report said, as well as interviews with\u00a0<\/span>Wuhan<\/span>\u00a0researchers and access to worker health records.<\/span><\/p>\nChina<\/span>\u2019s government blocked all efforts to interview researchers at the WIV, including those who became ill in the fall of 2019.<\/span><\/p>\nThe detailed\u00a0<\/span>State Department<\/span>\u00a0report concluded that excessive Chinese government secrecy prevented international investigators from determining the origin of the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\nOutside experts critical of\u00a0<\/span>China<\/span> say the<\/span>\u00a0findings in the January 2021 report only increase the skepticism of <\/span>Beijing<\/span>\u2019s denials that the virus leaked from the laboratory through an infection of a worker or through a research animal that was sold illicitly to a wild animal market.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThat was a lie. And the Chinese government knew very early on that that was a lie,\u201d said Jamie Metzl, a\u00a0<\/span>WHO<\/span>\u00a0adviser and a former Senate aide to President Biden.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAnd so in the face of overwhelming evidence in May of last year, the Chinese government shifted its position,\u201d he told the Toronto Sun last week.<\/span><\/p>\nChina<\/span>\u2019s government instead sought to promote conspiracy theories.\u00a0<\/span>Beijing<\/span>\u00a0officials even floated the idea that the virus was first introduced to\u00a0<\/span>
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