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.
A lack of Chinese cooperation also challenged a WHO-convened joint WHO-China delegation’s investigation in early 2021, culminating in a March report that concluded a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.” However, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later undercut the team’s statement, saying there is not enough evidence to support any conclusion. WHO officials reiterated that stance this week, saying all of the origin hypotheses “are still on the table.” Then, on August 25, the independent international members of the WHO-China team published a detailed piece in the journal Nature, outlining their review process and calling for an expedited second phase of investigation, noting the search is “at a critical juncture.”
On the same day, Chinese officials urged any future investigations to be broadened, possibly to other countries; refused to take blame for stalled efforts; and said the country will continue to participate in “science-based origin tracing efforts.” Chinese officials also accused the US of politicizing the investigation and attempted to shift blame, once again suggesting without evidence that the virus possibly escaped an US Army research facility. The Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, and China’s envoy to the United Nations this week publicly called for investigations into US labs. While understanding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic is a global priority, the likelihood of quickly finding evidence grounded in science is slim, especially without full and transparent cooperation from Chinese authorities.
That’s where it came from.