U.S.
report concluded COVID-19 may have leaked from Wuhan lab - WSJ
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[June 08, 2021]
(Reuters) -A report on the origins of
COVID-19 by a U.S. government national laboratory concluded that the
hypothesis of a virus leak from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and
deserves further investigation, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday,
citing people familiar with the classified document.
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The study was prepared in May 2020 by the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in California and was referred to by the State
Department when it conducted an inquiry into the pandemic's origins
during the final months of the Trump administration, the WSJ report
https://on.wsj.com/3pw8T5F said.
Lawrence Livermore's assessment drew on a genomic analysis of the
COVID-19 virus, the Journal said. Lawrence Livermore declined to
comment on the Wall Street Journal report.
President Joe Biden said last month he had ordered aides to find
answers to the origin of the virus.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/08/images/ads/current/charrons_bch041713.png)
U.S. intelligence agencies are considering two likely scenarios -
that the virus resulted from a laboratory accident or that it
emerged from human contact with an infected animal - but they have
not come to a conclusion, Biden said.
A still-classified U.S. intelligence report circulated during former
President Donald Trump's administration alleged that three
researchers at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology became so ill in
November 2019 that they sought hospital care, U.S. government
sources have said.
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![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Jun/08/images/ads/current/Culligan_lda_HOMETOWNHEROES_2021.png) U.S. officials have accused
China of not being transparent about the virus'
origins, a charge Beijing has denied.
Separately, Mike Ryan, a top World Health
Organization official said on Monday the WHO
cannot compel China to divulge more data on
COVID-19's origins, while adding it will propose
studies needed to take understanding of where
the virus emerged to the "next level".
Earlier this month, U.S. infectious disease
expert Dr. Anthony Fauci called on China to
release the medical records of nine people whose
ailments might provide vital clues into whether
COVID-19 first emerged as the result of a lab
leak.
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma and Kanishka Singh
in Bengaluru and Eric Beech in Washington;
Editing by Chris Reese, Leslie Adler and Edwina
Gibbs)
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