The director of the FBI argues that the origin of Covid-19 is accidental and “very likely” comes from a laboratory in Wuhan. This track is still only a hypothesis and remains disputed.
What is the origin of Covid-19? Since its appearance in 2019, which killed nearly 7 million people on the planet, we still do not know with certainty the origin of this virus. If all eyes are still on China, and in particular Wuhan, the director of the FBI affirmed, in an interview with the Fox News channel on Tuesday February 28, that a laboratory accident is “very probably” at the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic. We take stock of the various hypotheses put forward so far.
FBI hypothesis
How did this global pandemic appear in early 2020, killing nearly 7 million people and disrupting the march of the world for months? In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, February 28, FBI Director Christopher Wray said a lab accident in Wuhan, China is “very probably“at the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.”The FBI has believed for some time now that the origin of the pandemic is most likely (related to) a lab incident in Wuhan“, he thus declared to the American television channel.
This track is not new, and often advanced also by a part of the complosphere. Thus, a laboratory had already pointed out this “leak”, at the very beginning of the pandemic, arguing in particular the fact that the P4 laboratory in Wuhan was precisely conducting studies on coronaviruses. But no evidence has to date established that the origin of the Covid was indeed linked to this laboratory, as well as to the food market in the Chinese city, a few hundred meters away.
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With the FBI, it is the second American institution which advances the hypothesis of an accident in one week. According to several American media, in particular the wall street journal And CNN, the Ministry of Energy, which oversees the biology laboratories, also considers credible the idea of a leak from a laboratory on the basis of new intelligence. The press, however, insists that this new analysis is published “with a low level of confidence“by the ministry.
Disputed accidental origin
Still, the world of American intelligence is now even more divided, with some believing that the Covid occurred by natural transmission. The hypothesis of a leak or an accident remains a minority point of view. Thus, in the United States alone, four other intelligence agencies continue to believe that the Covid occurred by natural transmission, that is to say that its origin is probably animal.
Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), who had been able to visit China, particularly Wuhan in 2021, also favor this idea, even if for the WHO, “all assumptions remain on the table“.
>> Covid-19: investigation of the P4 in Wuhan, this laboratory partly funded by France where the virus was identified
Why It’s Hard to Get a Definitive Answer
With hindsight, the question arises: why do we still not have a definitive answer on Covid-19? However, this can be explained quite simply. The first reason is because the more time passes, the more difficult it is to understand what happened in these early stages of the pandemic. But the other reason is above all that both the WHO and the United States more or less openly criticize China’s lack of cooperation.
WHO scientists have, for example, only been able to go once, in 2021, to China to investigate. Since then, requests have been systematically refused. The director of the FBI is now directly targeting the Chinese government. According to him, he “did his best to try to thwart and confuse the work“Americans. Accusations that come in the midst of tension between Washington and Beijing, against a backdrop of war in Ukraine.
It remains that, for the scientific community, it is crucial to determine the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to better prevent and fight a next epidemic wave.
Beijing vigorously disputes these claims.
For its part, China continues to vigorously deny the hypothesis of a laboratory leak. For Beijing, these assumptions “undermine the credibility” the United States. “Given the lies, deceptions and countless misdeeds committed by US intelligence, their findings have absolutely no credibility.“, reacted Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during a regular press briefing.
And the spokesperson for the accused, in turn, Washington, believing that the WHO should, on the contrary, be interested in American laboratories: “The United States should respect science and facts, promptly cooperate with the WHO, invite international experts to conduct research on the origin of the virus, and share research findings with the international community.“, he denounced. During the press briefing on Wednesday, Mao Ning thus targeted, mainly the Fort Detrick laboratory, at the heart of American research against bioterrorism.