More than three years after Covid-19 spread around the world, many questions remain around this sensitive subject. The one of its origins is not the least of it.
Did this then new type of coronavirus develop in an animal organism before passing on to humans, through contact between the two species or the consumption of one of these infected beasts? Or is this pandemic, which has infected 758 million people, killing almost seven million (according to the WHO report of February 28), the deplorable consequence of human error, negligence, or even a laboratory leak?
In an interview with the US channel Fox News and broadcast on Tuesday, Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, took a very clear position in favor of the second option.
FBI chief blames Chinese state
“The FBI has believed for some time that the origin of the pandemic probably lies in a possible laboratory incident in Wuhan,” he said, citing in passing the Chinese crowd that this time reached a consensus when it spoke to establish the cradle of the disease.
“We are talking about a possible leak from a laboratory under the authority of the Chinese state,” he insisted.
If he said he based this strong assumption on research by analysts and scientists in his very famous and very federal “Office,” he nevertheless acknowledged: “Our work on this file continues.”
The US administration is divided on the issue.
There is nothing trivial about these statements, especially within a US administration, to say the least divided on the issue, since this summary produced by the Wall Street Journal. Thus, while the Department of Energy leans on the same side as the FBI -with a “low degree of certainty”, however, qualifies its report-, the CIA reserves its judgment.
The National Intelligence Council, like four other government agencies, even ruled in favor of the animal infection. With again, a “low degree of certainty”.
Opacity
The FBI is less likely to be convinced that Christopher Wray hasn’t revealed his game, or in this case, the work of his teams. “There aren’t that many details that I can share with you that would not be classified,” he sighed to Fox News.
This opacity, whether maintained or imposed by force of circumstances, annoys scientists who have come to opposite conclusions. “Two previously published studies, one of which I co-led, clearly demonstrate, with ample supporting evidence, that the pandemic has emerged among the human population at least twice in two weeks during or immediately prior to the Huanan market celebration (organized in Wuhan, editor’s note) at the time of trade in live animals,” Angie Rasmussen, an associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, protested to the guardian this Wednesday.
The word of the FBI – thus deprived of any visible basis – is also doomed to controversy in view of the context of strong tensions between China and the United States in which it is inscribed. And the conspiracy surrounding theories of human manipulation of the virus makes caution all the more necessary.
However, Fox News notes that the various agencies agree on at least one point: Covid-19 did not come from a Chinese biochemical weapons program.
Beijing’s anger
Unsurprisingly, Christopher Wray’s release did not go down well with China. Mao Ning, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reacted to his comments during a press conference. “The FBI pulls this theory out of a lab leak, which in no way discredits China, but only further damages its own credibility,” he said.
“Given the lies, deceit and countless misdeeds committed by the US intelligence services, their conclusions have absolutely no credibility,” he added.
Source: BFM TV
