Assessing the Origins of COVID-19: Insights from the US Intelligence Community
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Rohit Kumar Sharma
Rohit Kumar Sharma is a Research Analyst, at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi. His areas of research include Internet governance, cybersecurity, cyberinsurance and… Continue reading Assessing the Origins of COVID-19: Insights from the US Intelligence Community read more
The US intelligence community unveiled a declassified report, titled “Potential Links Between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Origin of the COVID- 19 Pandemic”. This legislation mandated the US Intelligence Community to disclose information regarding potential connections between the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the genesis of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report detailed the intelligence community’s comprehension of the WIV, its capabilities, and the actions conducted by its personnel in the period leading up to and during the initial phases of the COVID-19 outbreak. Interestingly, there appears to be a lack of consensus within the intelligence community on this matter. While four agencies lean towards the belief that the virus was transmitted from animals to humans, the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conclude that the virus originated from a “laboratory- associated incident,” though for differing reasons. However, all agencies’ assessments highlight that SARS-CoV-2 was not engineered as a biological weapon.
