State of Mankind

Could the 90-day Covid Origin Probe Be Politicized? | Zooming In China



The 90-day Covid Origin report president Biden ordered came out last Friday. The unclassified summary of the report assesses that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019 with the first known cluster of COVID-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In addition, the IC was able to reach broad agreement on several other key issues. We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon. Most agencies also assess with low confidence that SARS-CoV-2 probably was not genetically engineered; however, two agencies believe there was not sufficient evidence to make an assessment either way. Finally, the IC assesses China’s officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of COVID-19 emerged. Today I invited a virologist and an Intelligence Community veteran to discuss the report with me. Sean Lin was the former lab director of the Walter Reed Army institute of research. Nick Eftimiades was a Retired senior intelligence officer who specialized in China.Mr. Eftimiades spent 34 years in CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency and has written extensively on China’s espionage operations” Pronounced. Here is the discussion.