Posted on 02/26/2023 9:45:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind
As the drip, drip, drip of revelations about the COVID-19 pandemic continues some three years after its appearance in the United States saw the first lockdowns and restrictions instituted, a federal agency has changed its conclusion about the virus' origin.
According to an exclusive report in The Wall Street Journal published Sunday, the United States Department of Energy has concluded that COVID "most likely arose from a laboratory leak," an updated position for the Energy Department that was reportedly revealed in "a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress." Previously, the Department of Energy was officially "undecided" on the emergence of COVID-19.
Overall, the United States federal government remains at odds over the pandemic's origins, with the Energy Department and FBI both now concluding a lab leak was most likely to blame, while four other federal entities believe it was the result of a "natural transmission," and two remain "undecided," according to WSJ:
The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.
The Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to people who have read the classified report.
The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view.
The FBI employs a cadre of microbiologists, immunologists and other scientists and is supported by the National Bioforensic Analysis Center, which was established at Fort Detrick, Md., in 2004 to analyze anthrax and other possible biological threats.
Officials who spoke to WSJ "declined to give details on the fresh intelligence and analysis that led the Energy Department to change its position" but said the Department of Energy and FBI made their conclusions "for different reasons." An official did confirm "that the intelligence community had conducted the update...in light of new intelligence, further study of academic literature and consultation with experts outside government."
That type of research and intelligence gathering has become the United States' only hope of learning more about how COVID-19 became a global pandemic after the Chinese Communist Party closed ranks, restricted (and in some cases apparently "disappeared") its scientists from speaking to the outside world, and banned international and United Nations scientists from investigating the virus' origins at the apparent source.
As Townhall reported earlier in February, the World Health Organization unceremoniously abandoned its probe of COVID's origins, blaming the CCP for being secretive and unwilling to cooperate with researcher requests.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are planning an investigation of their own into the origins of COVID-19 with their majority power and committee chairmanships, specifically Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and the House Oversight Committee.
"Discovering the origin is vital to providing accountability and protecting Americans in the future," the Oversight Committee's "COVID origins" landing page says. "Mounting evidence points to the virus originating from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)," it adds, reflecting what the Department of Energy has concluded. But Oversight Republicans also plan to probe how "EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) grantee, awarded taxpayer funds to the WIV to conduct gain of function research on bat coronaviruses – research that may have started the pandemic."
The Oversight Committee has also come into possession of emails warning Dr. Fauci that a lab leak of a genetically engineered virus could explain COVID's origin, and even pointed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a potential culprit. Oversight Republicans say those emails show Fauci and former National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins potentially colluding with scientists "to downplay the lab leak theory for their preferred narrative of natural origin."
Well it was released by a lab and didn’t occur in nature before then, so that answers your question.
RE: What relevance does the “Dept. of Energy” have about the covid-19 virus ?
I direct you to Post #16 of this thread.
Republicans erupt after Energy Dept reportedly says COVID-19 likely came from Chinese lab:
‘We need answers’
Lab leak theory was dismissed as ‘fringe,’ ‘conspiracy’ at start of pandemic!:
Doctors were ‘muscled,’ ‘bullied’ for speaking out against COVID: Makary:
Fox News contributor Dr. Marty Makary joins “Fox & Friends Weekend” to discuss the FDA’s ongoing efforts to ban “off-label” uses of medical devices.
Congressional Republicans erupted on Twitter Sunday afternoon after the U.S. Energy Department reportedly assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from an accidental lab leak in China.
The Energy Department, which was previously undecided on the origin of the pandemic, now joins the FBI’s stance that the coronavirus likely spread due to a mishap at a Chinese laboratory, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.
The lab leak theory, or the theory that the virus came from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, was widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory and “misinformation” by Democrats, major news outlets, scientists and social media companies in the early stages of the pandemic.
Now, Republicans are calling for accountability from the Chinese Communist Party as evidence mounts that it is to blame for the pandemic.
Thanks!
Owen wrote: “Not clear why DOE has any reason to fund such a conclusion.”
As Stated in the article: “The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.”
Thanks!
Funny how this comes out as tensions escalate between US and China.
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