“China is hiding a lot. Since the outbreak began, China has flooded the scientific literature with subtle and sometimes not so subtle messages supporting its narrative that COVID-19 is a naturally-occurring mutation that ‘jumped’ from animals to humans in the Wuhan Seafood Market. That argument has been buttressed by a relatively small group of Western scientists, who may have a vested interest in one particular outcome and wish to limit the debate.”
Retired US Army Col Dr. Lawrence Sellin (May 1st 2020)
Wuhan Institute of Virology
May 2 2020 — Rumors have been confirmed. US Intelligence agencies are investigating the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
RELATED POST: COVID-19 — The Boy Who Cried Wolf [Is Pompeo telling the truth about the Wuhan Lab?]
RELATED POST: COVID-19 — Brussels Top Politicians Caught Helping Chinese Disinformation
RELATED POST: 5G — Fake News in the time of the coronavirus [UPDATE]
RELATED POST: Coronavirus — “Potential Emergence of a Global Pandemic” [NIC — Global Trends 2025 (November 2008)]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ODNI News Release No. 11-20
April 30, 2020
Intelligence Community Statement on Origins of COVID-19
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of the Director of National Intelligence today issued the following Intelligence Community (IC) statement:
“The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to U.S. policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China.
The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.
As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security.
The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
Intel Today would like to know what you think. Do you believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is the result of an accident at the Wuhan laboratory?
– – –
PS — I am not yet convinced that COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.
Actually, some ‘scientific’ statements reported to support that conclusion are clearly untrue. (More about this later.) For now, I believe that Dr Sellin is correct to be cautious.
Unless the US intelligence community can explain the origin of the PRRAR amino acid structure, unique to COVID-19 and not present in any of the identified close relatives like RaTG13, a structure related to a “gain of function” leading to enhanced transmissibility, there is no reason at this stage to dismiss prematurely a bioengineering explanation for the origin of COVID-19.
The US intelligence community statement brought us no closer to the truth and may have unnecessarily handed China a huge propaganda victory, while simultaneously making it less likely that Beijing will be inclined to open its research records for international inspection.
REFERENCES
Intelligence Community Statement on Origins of COVID-19 — ODNI News Release No. 11-20 (April 30, 2020)
=
ODNI — Intelligence Community Statement on Origins of COVID-19 [POLL]
Intel Today 