Breaking: WSJ Exclusive. Covid was leaked in China

Just 24 months or so ago, this would have been banned on Twitter, and FB and been tagged with those annoying "Learn More About Covid-19..." snippets.

The media, and the liberal mass,  lambasted anyone who suggested this possibility calling those who talked about it "racists".  

Today, the Wall Street Journal report supports all those folks who asked the question.

"Where did this come from?"

Summary

1. The US Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.
2. The Energy Department had previously been undecided on how the virus emerged, but their shift is significant because they have considerable scientific expertise and oversee a network of US national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.
3. The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of natural transmission, and two are undecided.
4. The update reaffirmed an existing consensus among the agencies that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological weapons program. The pandemic’s origin has been the subject of vigorous, sometimes partisan debate among academics, intelligence experts, and lawmakers.
5. Despite the agencies’ differing analyses, the updated findings of the US Energy Department provide new intelligence and analysis that has led to a shift in their position, highlighting how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how Covid-19 emerged, and more information is still needed from the Chinese authorities.

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The U.S. Energy Department has recently concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report that was provided to the White House and key members of Congress. The Energy Department had previously been undecided on how the virus emerged, but their shift is significant because they have considerable scientific expertise and oversee a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research. The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of natural transmission, and two are undecided.

Despite the agencies’ differing analyses, the update reaffirmed an existing consensus between them that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological weapons program. The pandemic’s origin has been the subject of vigorous, sometimes partisan debate among academics, intelligence experts, and lawmakers. Some scientists argue that the virus probably emerged naturally and leapt from an animal to a human, the same pathway for outbreaks of previously unknown pathogens. Intelligence analysts who have supported that view give weight to “the precedent of past novel infectious disease outbreaks having zoonotic origins,” the flourishing trade in a diverse set of animals that are susceptible to such infections, and their conclusion that Chinese officials didn’t have foreknowledge of the virus.

However, no confirmed animal source for Covid-19 has been identified. The lack of an animal source, and the fact that Wuhan is the center of China’s extensive coronavirus research, has led some scientists and U.S. officials to argue that a lab leak is the best explanation for the pandemic’s beginning. U.S. State Department cables written in 2018 and internal Chinese documents show that there were persistent concerns about China’s biosafety procedures, which have been cited by proponents of the lab-leak hypothesis. 

Wuhan is home to an array of laboratories, many of which were built or expanded as a result of China’s traumatic experience with the initial severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic beginning in 2002.

The U.S. intelligence community is made up of 18 agencies, including offices at the Energy, State, and Treasury departments. Eight of them participated in the Covid-origins review, along with the National Intelligence Council. Before the report, the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory prepared a study in May 2020 concluding that a lab-leak hypothesis was plausible and deserved further investigation. 

The debate over whether Covid-19 might have escaped from a laboratory has been fueled by U.S. intelligence that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care.

Overall, the updated findings of the U.S. Energy Department highlight how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how Covid-19 emerged, and more information is still needed from the Chinese authorities. 

While this report doesn’t settle the debate over whether Covid-19 resulted from a lab leak or came from an animal, it does provide new intelligence and analysis that has led the Energy Department to change its position, which is significant because of its considerable scientific expertise and network of U.S. national laboratories. - DOTC News

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Intro Paragraph for LinkedIn Post: The US Energy Department has recently concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a new intelligence report. The report is significant as the agency oversees a network of US national laboratories that conduct advanced biological research. The findings differ from four other agencies' assessments, which still judge that it was likely the result of natural transmission, and two are undecided. This article delves into the different intelligence community analyses, the ongoing debate over COVID-19's origins, and the significance of the Energy Department's new intelligence report. #USDepartmentofEnergy #COVID19 #IntelligenceReport #LabLeakHypothesis