The US shared “staggering” evidence with Britain at the height of the crisis. Covid-19 pandemic this suggested a “high probability” that the virus had leaked from a Chinese laboratory, The Telegraph can reveal.
Intelligence-sharing Five Eyes countries met in January 2021 to discuss the possibility of a “lab leak”, as the United States warned that China had covered up coronavirus research and activities soldiers in a laboratory Wuhan.
In an unreported phone call in January 2021, Mike Pompeothe former US Secretary of State, presented his counterparts with evidence supporting the lab leak theory, Dominique Raabthen the Minister of Foreign Affairs and representatives of Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Speaking to the Telegraph, two Trump administration officials accused Mr Raab and the British government of ignoring laboratory leak theory due to resistance from government scientists who supported the explanation that the virus had jumped from animals to humans.
Mr. Pompeo presented a summary of classified US intelligence reports collected early in the pandemic and compiled by the State Department. The intelligence reports themselves were reportedly shared separately with the UK via the Five Eyes network between October and December 2020.
“We saw several pieces of information and thought they were, frankly, mind-boggling,” said a former official who worked on the intelligence that fueled Mr. Pompeo’s report. “They obviously highlighted the high probability that this was indeed a lab leak.”
In a document, which has since been released by the State Department under freedom of information laws, US officials warned of “constant obstruction” by China after the first discovery of the virus and accused local officials of “blatant corruption and ineptitude.”
The research revealed for the first time that Chinese military officials had worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in the years before the pandemic, and that some researchers at the lab had fallen ill shortly before the virus is detected for the first time nearby.
It also showed that Chinese scientists had conducted “gain of function” research at WIV, which has since become a key piece of evidence for the study of WIV. laboratory leak theory pushed by his supporters.
The theory has become a point of contention among scientists and government officials in the years since the pandemic and prompted two investigations by the World Health Organization, which China has been accused of obstructing.
British government ministers, including Boris Johnsoninitially ruled out the possibility that Covid-19 was created by scientists, saying in June 2021 that “the advice we have received is that it does not appear that this particular disease of zoonotic origin came from a laboratory”.
Two former officials claimed the UK ignored evidence presented by the US because ministers viewed the lab leak allegations as a “radioactive US political issue” fueled by public disagreement between government scientists and Mr. Trump.
“Once the topic became fundamentally political, the ability to pursue it internationally simply collapsed because no one else was interested in touching it,” one of the officials said.
“I think (Five Eyes) was pretty annoyed with the way the issue had been handled in American politics.”
Both separately named Jeremy Farrar, a member of the government’s scientific advisory group for emergencies, as a leading opponent of the lab leak theory within the British government.
The majority of scientific experts have long held that an interaction between animals and humans is the most likely cause of the first infection.
However, some government figures, including Michael Gove, have since said they believe the virus was “man-made”.
Mr Gove told the Covid investigation by November, there was “a significant body of judgment that believes the virus itself was of human origin – and that presents its own set of challenges.”
The FBI and the US Department of Energy have said they believe a laboratory leak is the most likely cause of Covid-19, while other agencies have said they believe it is was produced naturally.
Joe Biden, the US president, has said he does not know where the virus started, while the US National Intelligence Council said last year that it “likely emerged and infected humans during a first small-scale exhibition.
UK ministers now face calls to widen the terms of the Covid inquiry to include an inquiry into the origin of the virus.
The Telegraph understands that the January 2021 call was deliberately held on an “open line” without security encryption in the hope that Chinese intelligence agencies would hear that Western countries were aware of military activity in Wuhan.
“We did this deliberately…we wanted to put pressure on the bad guys,” a State Department source said.
Ten days after the call, in which officials said the U.K. was unwilling to participate in a U.S.-led investigation into a lab leak or share its own research, the summary compiled by Mr. Pompeo’s officials was made public in the form of a “fact sheet.”
Those involved in this publication said they were careful to avoid revealing the sources or methods of U.S. intelligence agencies and that this was only the “tip of the iceberg” of intelligence under -currents which had been collected.
A UK Government spokeswoman said: “There are still questions that need to be answered about the origin and spread of Covid-19, not least so that we can ensure we are better prepared for future pandemics.
“The UK continues to support the World Health Organization in its expert review into the origins of Covid-19. It is important that China and other countries fully cooperate with researchers. »
