Friday, March 14, 2025
HomeBNDGermanys BND suspects COVID-19 pandemic originated from a Wuhan lab accident

Germanys BND suspects COVID-19 pandemic originated from a Wuhan lab accident

Share


Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, concluded that the outbreak of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic in 2020 could well have been triggered by an accident at a Chinese laboratory that does virus research, German media reported on Wednesday.

The pandemic caused the death of millions of people across the world from the respiratory illness COVID-19, while fallout from the catastrophe continues to dog global economies and drive social tensions.

Alleged risky virus research methods in Wuhan

According to reports in the German papers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Zeit, the BND based its conclusion on the analysis of material from the public domain and that it collected in the course of an investigation with the code name “Saaremaa.”

The material, some of which came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, located in the Chinese city where the pandemic is believed to have started, indicated that there had been some risky research methods used there, compounded by breaches of laboratory safety rules, the reports said.

The papers said there was evidence that Wuhan researchers carried out so-called gain-of-function experiments, in which viruses occurring in nature are manipulated. Such research can cause changes in the way a virus causes illness, its transmissibility and the types of hosts it can infect.

There were also indications that there had been numerous violations of safety regulations at the lab,according to the reports.

The BND reached its conclusions as early as 2020, the papers said, giving them a likelihood rating of 80% to 95%, but the assessment was kept from the public at the time.

What does China say about COVID’s origins?

China has always denied that the Wuhan lab was responsible for the outbreak.

However, in January, the US secret service, the CIA, said it was also of the opinion that the coronavirus behind the pandemic, named SARS-CoV-2, likely came from a laboratory, although it cautioned that it had “low confidence” in the finding.

The FBI also made a similar statement in March 2023.

Other theories that have been put forward is that the pandemic first broke out in 2019 in a market selling meat from wild animals in Wuhan.

Via DW

Popular

Understanding Putins Strategy: A New World Order

What Happened and Why Putin Did It So, picture Ukraine minding its own business when Russia rolls in with...

A minimum of 11 dead in China ferryboat catastrophe as 2 vessels clash on river

A minimum of 11 individuals passed away and another 5 are missing out on following an accident in between a little ferryboat and another...

Related Articles

China states United States must have stated huge thank you over fentanyl crackdown

China has actually revealed its desire to open discussion with the United States in...

Anthropic CEO says spies are after $100M AI secrets in a few lines of code

Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei is worried that spies, likely from China, are getting...

Countless restaurants to be compensated after guys urinate in hot pot

More than 4,000 restaurants will be compensated after 2 guys presumably urinated in broth...

Why Chinas president hasn’t called Trump about United States tariff trade war

When President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China today, 2 leaders...

China reveals tit-for-tat tariffs on Canada food imports after Canadian tasks on Chinese items

China on Saturday revealed vindictive tariffs on some Canadian farm and food imports, after...

Donald Trump provides me hope my daddy will be launched, Jimmy Lais kid states

The kid of imprisoned British pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has actually stated he is...

Chinas conviction of 1,500 detainees of conscience a criminal activity versus humankind

China arbitrarily apprehended thousands and founded guilty 1,545 "detainees of conscience" in the last...
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x