The mystery surrounding the origin of the coronavirus that has exhausted the world seems set to linger for a while longer. After expectations of an American report revealing the secret behind the emergence of this deceptive virus, U.S. President Joe Biden received a disappointing report last night, Tuesday.
The secret report issued by U.S. intelligence was inconclusive regarding the origins of the new coronavirus. Did it leak from a lab, or did it jump from an animal? The report did not clarify whether the pathogen or infection arose naturally from an animal (such as bats) to humans or if it escaped from a lab in central China, as reported today, Wednesday, by the Washington Post, citing informed U.S. officials.
Although this assessment resulted from diligent and swift work over 90 days after Biden tasked intelligence agencies in May with preparing a report "that could bring the U.S. administration closer to a final conclusion" regarding the virus's origins, which has claimed more than 4 million lives globally and devastated economies, the result was not conclusive.
According to insiders, the report included an analysis of a variety of current intelligence information and sought new evidence but failed to reach consensus among intelligence officials about a unified stance. Notably, U.S. officials had previously announced that intelligence agencies would seek to declassify parts of the report within days for public presentation.
The origin of the virus has sparked unprecedented tension between the previous U.S. administration and Beijing, after former President Donald Trump accused Chinese authorities of covering up information, asserting that the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan lab. For two years, the world, along with the World Health Organization, has been trying to investigate and delve deeper to determine the origin of the pandemic, without any definitive results so far, as China continues to maintain its position denying that the virus escaped from the Wuhan laboratory in December 2019.
