Germany’s foreign intelligence service believed there was a 80-90% chance that coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab, German media say. Two German newspapers say they have uncovered details of an assessment carried out by spy agency BND in 2020 but never published.
The intelligence service had indications that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been carrying out experiments where viruses are modified to become more transmissible to humans for research, they say.
China repeated its denial saying the cause “should be determined by scientists” - and pointed to a World Health Organization investigation which found the lab-leak theory was “extremely unlikely”.
The lab leak hypothesis has been hotly contested by scientists, including many who say there is no definitive evidence to back it up. But the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies - and the BND is the latest to entertain the theory. In January, the US CIA said the coronavirus was “more likely” to have leaked from a lab than to have come from animals.
But the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies
ie someone at the CIA who wont put their name to it, and a couple of corporate owned German newspapers who they fed it to
Only because the propaganda arms got defunded, but the CIA, the biggest one, didn’t.
We’re supposed to trust spies working for nation-states that support Israel?
Although I think the support to Israel (which I am against too) does not play a role in the sake of this argument, I agree with you: it independent scientists couldn’t find scientific evidences to support that, spies are for sure not reliable.
Okay, thank you for getting that. In retrospect, I can see how my comment might be perceived as potentially antisemitic but, I’m coming from an anti-imperialist perspective. And, the West is going to keep flooding us with anti-East and anti-Middle East propaganda.
So, to me, Germany’s support of Israel and their demonization of China is one and the same.
Are we seriously back on this again?
They keep “believing” that’s what happened because they have not presented any concrete evidence that can be used to get rid of that qualifier.
The context for the DEFUSE program is that SARS-cov-1 was of pretty significant concern that it could mutate into a global pandemic similar to the Cov-2 pandemic that actually happened. The program was funded to investigate, learn and prepare for what were predicted to be some of the more dangerous possible mutations.
The “smoking gun” here is all correlation. Saying “they predicted correctly what was dangerous and were proactively studying it” is not a good argument for causation.
However, the theory that I haven’t seen well debunked/studied is that improper handling/disposal of dead viruses/plasmids/etc. increased the risk of/allowed for recombinants with the endemic Cov strain resulting in those mutations of greatest concern… Have you come across anything on that?
Remember when hinting at this would get you banned from Youtube? Good times
You can’t even say dead or killed or rape on youtube.
Yeah makes me not want to watch anything on there. Wife was watching some true crime and I was so confused on why they kept saying essay (SA) and grape.
Can you please censor ess*y in the future so that it’ll be more difficult for me to filter automatically and actually make me way more likely to get triggered? Thanks.
- Bloomcole ( @Bloomcole@lemmy.ml ) 17•6 days ago
“Germany’s foreign intelligence” LOL
And who wouldn’t trust the BBC mouthpiece? 
Reporter: [REDACTED]
Reason: misinformationWhat, we’re supposed to remove UK state-affiliated media articles about German state intelligence assessments?
They are so well trained that even when their own governments retroactively admit they lied, they will not believe it and still say lab leak is a conspiracy theory.
The SARS-CoV-2 gain of function research was going on under Fauci’s watch.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022: A call for an independent inquiry into the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus
- New Yorker, 2023: Mad Scientists - Nowhere is the lab-leak debate more personal than among the experts investigating the origins of COVID
- Consortium News, 2024: What the US Might Owe the World for Covid-19 - A U.S.-funded laboratory origin of Covid-19 would certainly constitute the most significant case of governmental gross negligence in history
I really don’t think it’s that hard to believe that some postdoc in Wuhan screwed up and let it loose accidentally.
But it is even easier to believe that the CIA and their toady media are lying again
Okay, sure, but to what end? It’s not clear to me how accusations of an accidental release are bad for China. Is the purpose actually to cover up intentional sabotage by an anti-China entity? It’s not clear to me either who it helps or hurts for the COVID-19 outbreak to have been a completely natural occurrence.
Is the purpose actually to cover up intentional sabotage by an anti-China entity?
I don’t know, but it entirely plausible when you consider the long history of lies by the entity that is most anti-China. Especially since it has a $1.6 billion budget specifically for anti-China propaganda
Means, motive, lack of scruples: it’s all there.
I wonder if proof of sabotage actually exists, but whoever has it is withholding it from the public for blackmail.
Really? Accidental release implies China is dangerously incompetent, which can be used to further justify more restrictions and constraints on Chinese science because they can’t be trusted.
China already gets a lot of (undeserved) bad press. An experiment breaching containment and causing a pandemic is bad for scientific research everywhere.
Two German newspapers say they have uncovered details of an assessment carried out by spy agency BND in 2020 but never published.
But the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies - and the BND is the latest to entertain the theory.
Does it really matter? Many laboratories around the world experiment with highly dangerous viruses and that one leaked. Not that I like it but it’s still a fact.