the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Washington DC, The US Intelligence Community on August 24 delivered a classified report to US President Joe Biden that made no conclusions about the origins of the novel coronavirus, including whether the virus was transmitted to humans naturally through an animal vector or if human transmission was the result of a laboratory mishap. The report, some of which is expected to be declassified in the coming days, is the result of an order from President Biden given in late May for the Intelligence Community to provide another, more thorough assessment of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 within 90 days. The report’s lack of conclusions prompted calls from global health experts, scientists, and politicians for a more urgent international effort to find the source of the pandemic in order to inform future pandemic preparedness. According to The Wall Street Journal, 2 senior US officials said a lack of cooperation from China, where the virus is assumed to have originated, hampered the US investigation.