"COVID-19 Originated from Lab Leak"... US FBI Concluded 3 Years Ago

FBI Begins Tracing Origin Under Biden's Orders
Reaches Different Conclusion from NIC and Other Intelligence Agencies

Under the direction of U.S. President Joe Biden, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traced the origin of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and concluded three years ago that the virus was artificially created in a laboratory. On the 26th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported this, citing Dr. Jason Bannan, who was in charge of the FBI investigation at the time.

Under the direction of U.S. President Joe Biden, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traced the origin of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and confirmed that it reached the conclusion three years ago that the virus was artificially created in a laboratory. AP·Yonhap News

In 2021, President Biden ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate the origin of the COVID-19 virus. At that time, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and four intelligence agencies concluded that the natural origin theory, which states that the virus was transmitted from wild animals to humans, was plausible, but the FBI took an opposing stance. Dr. Bannan, a microbiology expert who researched biological weapons and related fields at the FBI for over 20 years, stated, "The FBI was the only agency that judged the virus leaked from a laboratory, and the reliability of that judgment was moderate." According to Dr. Bannan, the FBI tried to report this conclusion to President Biden, but it was excluded from the White House briefing by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), who oversees U.S. intelligence agencies.

The WSJ explained that the exclusion of the FBI’s conclusion from the White House briefing seemed related to the scientific community’s atmosphere at the time. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, then-President Donald Trump claimed, "There is evidence that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory," but this only sparked political controversy. In particular, the medical journal The Lancet published a statement by some scientists labeling the laboratory leak theory as a "conspiracy theory."

However, it was confirmed that one of the scientists who authored this statement belonged to a research group collaborating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, which was suspected as the virus leak source. The WSJ also explained that there are scientists affiliated with U.S. intelligence agencies, other than the FBI, who concluded that the coronavirus was artificially manufactured and then leaked.

Three scientists from the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) under the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) concluded through genetic analysis that the virus was created in a laboratory. They found that part of the spike protein, which allows the virus to invade human cells, was manufactured using a technique introduced in a Chinese scientific paper published in 2008. Their research results were also excluded from the White House briefing. Dr. Bannan, now retired from the FBI, said regarding the origin of the COVID-19 virus, "We need to re-examine the evidence that was cut out during the 2021 White House report preparation process by U.S. intelligence agencies."