(TibetanReview.net, Mar14’25) – China may continue to deny it vehemently, only to reinforce the suspicion by denying proper cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the latter’s investigation of the source of the Covid-19 pandemic virus. It has led a number of countries to suspect a lab-related incident in Wuhan city as a possible origin of the virus. And now, it has been reported that Germany’s foreign intelligence service too believed that there was 80-90% chance that the coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab even as the virus’s natural origin theory is increasingly seen as baseless.
Multiple US government agencies, including the CIA, FBI and the Department of Energy, have assessed with varying levels of confidence that a lab-related incident in Wuhan could have been the origin of the Covid-19 virus. The Trump administration first raised this possibility in 2020, and the Biden administration later ordered intelligence reviews.
Some British officials and intelligence sources have suggested that a lab-related origin remains plausible. The UK government has publicly acknowledged the need for further investigation.
And early in the pandemic, Australia called for an independent inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, which severely strained its diplomatic ties with China. Some Australian intelligence sources have considered the lab leak theory a possibility.
Some Canadian officials too supported calls for greater transparency regarding the Wuhan lab but have not made definitive claims about the origin.
And while the European Union has generally supported the WHO investigations, based on limited access and information from China, some European politicians and scientists have voiced concerns about the lab leak theory being a possibility.
China has consistently denied the lab leak hypothesis, and WHO-led investigations, denied proper access and information, have been unable to find conclusive evidence supporting it.
Two German newspapers have said they have uncovered details of an assessment carried out by spy agency BND in 2020 but never published.
The intelligence service had indications that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been carrying out experiments where viruses are modified to become more transmissible to humans for research, they have said.
According to Die Zeit and Sueddeutscher Zeitung, the BND met in Berlin in 2020 to look into the origin of coronavirus in an operation called Project Saaremaa. And it assessed the lab theory as “likely”, although it did not have definitive proof.
The BND also found indications that several violations of safety regulations had occurred at the lab, reported the bbc.com Mar 13.
Supporters of the natural origin hypothesis – which was backed in the WHO report in its early 2021 investigation – say Covid-19 emerged in bats and then jumped to humans, most likely through another animal, or “intermediary host”.
This hypothesis was widely accepted at the start of the pandemic. However, as time has worn on, scientists have not found a virus in either bats or another animal that matches the genetic make-up of Covid-19, leading some to doubt the theory, the report noted.