BY FRED GUTERL , NAVEED JAMALI AND TOM O'CONNOR ON 4/27/20 AT 3:34 PM EDT

ust one day after the U.S. surpassed China to become the country with the highest number of Covid-19 cases, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency updated its assessment of the origin of the novel coronavirus to reflect that it may have been accidentally released from an infectious diseases lab, Newsweek has learned.

The report, dated March 27 and corroborated by two U.S. officials, reveals that U.S. intelligence revised its January assessment in which it "judged that the outbreak probably occurred naturally" to now include the possibility that the new coronavirus emerged "accidentally" due to "unsafe laboratory practices" in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pathogen was first observed late last year. The classified report, titled "China: Origins of COVID-19 Outbreak Remain Unknown," ruled out that the disease was genetically engineered or released intentionally as a biological weapon.

"We have no credible evidence to indicate SARS-CoV-2 was released intentionally or was created as a biological weapon," the report found. "It is very unlikely that researchers or the Chinese government would intentionally release such a dangerous virus, especially within China, without possessing a known and effective vaccine." Every scientist interviewed by Newsweek for this story also rejected categorically the notion that the virus was intentionally released.

Covid-19 has infected nearly 3 million people across the globe, initially ravaging China before hitting hardest in the West and leaving the United States as the most deeply-afflicted country, with more than 55,000 deaths as of April 27. Its origin remains the subject of not only scientific debate, but a politically charged dispute in the international community.


Citing academic literature, the DIA document states that a "definitive answer may never be known" as to how the disease truly first emerged. A U.S. intelligence spokesperson told Newsweek, "the Intelligence Community has not collectively agreed on any one theory."


The coronavirus pandemic may be a result of controversial experiments inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology, as U.S. intelligence now concedes. Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, China, on February 23, 2017. -
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Uncertain source

Tracing the origin of a new virus is not easy. It took researchers at the Wuhan Institute more than a decade to trace the 2002-2003 SARS virus to remote bat caves in Yunnan province. It's not surprising, then, that in early February, China's Academy for Military Medical Sciences "concluded that it was impossible for them to scientifically determine whether the Covid-19 outbreak was caused naturally or accidentally from a laboratory incident," according to the DIA document.

Initial assessments conducted by the Chinese government pointed to the city's Huanan Seafood Market as the likely cause of a natural outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, a new coronavirus that causes Covid-19. In the early days of the outbreak, local officials played down the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus and silenced doctors who spoke out about the growing outbreak. It may have undercounted deaths and the number of cases of Covid-19. A spurious theory that the U.S. deliberately planted the virus in Wuhan also started circulating.

China's foreign ministry told reporters April 23rd that the World Health Organization found "no evidence" the outbreak started at the Wuhan laboratory, and Yuan Zhiming, vice president of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan Branch, blasted the inference of intentional misuse or creation as "malicious" and "impossible."
"The director of the Galveston National Laboratory in the United States made it clear that our laboratory is just as well managed as labs in Europe and the U.S.," he said. "I think it is understandable for people to make that association. But it is a malicious move to purposefully mislead the people" to think that the virus escaped from [our Wuhan] labs.

"They have no evidence or logic to support their accusations. They are basing it completely on their own speculations."

The DIA report, however, cites U.S. government and Chinese researchers that found "about 33 percent of the original 41 identified cases did not have direct exposure" to the market. That, along with what's known of the laboratory's work in past few years, raised reasonable suspicion that the pandemic may have been caused by a lab error, not the wet market.
PLEASE READ ON ....

how will a country deliberately release a virus and kill her own people.

during the war game in Wuhan last year some American soldiers were reportedly sick and was flown back to USA . what's the USA explanation of caused the sickness.

USA taunting herself with the best intelligence. can it be said they didn't get a chance to know the level of the threat to her citizens.

even if the intelligence failed.as recent as January 23 CNN and BBC are already showing how you guys are repatriating your citizens. what measure did you put in place.

it's easier to point at the teacher hatred to suit your failure.

gnykelly:
how will a country deliberately release a virus and kill her own people.

Humans are the worst, things they do are unimaginable, one can kill even his own family just to get what he wants (selfish desires) and these are Chinese we're talking about they're very terrible race.

cbrezy:


Humans are the worst, things they do are unimaginable, one can kill even his own family just to get what he wants (selfish desires) and these are Chinese we're talking about they're very terrible race.

I beg to differ.

Chinese are not terrible race... that's the only country that has lifted more than 800million of her people out of poverty in the last 40yrs.

not even my dear country Nigeria can.

they don't have a history of slave trade and they've not been to war in the past 30 years.

the virus no one knows it origin but they have been very efficient in managing it

gnykelly:


I beg to differ.

Chinese are not terrible race... that's the only country that has lifted more than 800million of her people out of poverty in the last 40yrs.
not even my dear country Nigeria can.
they don't have a history of slave trade and they've not been to war in the past 30 years.
the virus no one knows it origin but they have been very efficient in managing it

um..... There were only about 800 million Chinese people 40 years ago

Kobojunkie:

um..... There were only about 800 million Chinese people 40 years ago

and they are still pulling people out of extreme poverty