China Firm was Involved in Bio Weapons Research Prior to COVID

[Uomo Senza Nome]

Risky Experiments Inside Wuhan Lab Created COVID-19, Sensational New Evidence Reveals (msn.com)
Wuhan scientists 'created mutant virus before pandemic' (msn.com)


It's the Telegraph, not sure of accuracy of report. I don't think it would be surprising either.

[Anianna]

All internal links (links to other Knews articles) in the Knews article go to the same article that doesn't provide a source for what this Knews article is claiming and, of the two external links, one source is The Daily Mail, which is a sensationalist tabloid.  The remaining link is just to WHO Covid statistics for a given week that includes an overview and a PDF download, though the download does, at least, corroborate the numbers reported in that paragraph.  You already mentioned that The Telegraph is problematic. 

As much as I want answers, I don't trust either of these sources on the topic.  I'm neither accepting nor dismissing the premise at this time.

[Uomo Senza Nome]

That is exactly where I am at. It might be decades before we have straight answers on this.

[Uomo Senza Nome]

Wuhan lab scientists were first to catch COVID-19: report (msn.com) 

"Sources within the U.S. government say that three of the earliest people to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 were Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu. All were members of the Wuhan lab suspected to have leaked the pandemic virus," it adds. 

Not sure how to tell if they were infected accidentally or did it on purpose? Also how do they know they were the first ones?

[Anianna]

Wuhan lab scientists were first to catch COVID-19: report (msn.com)

"Sources within the U.S. government say that three of the earliest people to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 were Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu. All were members of the Wuhan lab suspected to have leaked the pandemic virus," it adds.

Not sure how to tell if they were infected accidentally or did it on purpose? Also how do they know they were the first ones?

It is infuriating that the Fox article doesn't link to any of the sources.  I went digging, but the link trail is equally frustrating.  I found one of the authors named, who posted some info about the investigation (in a voice that didn't sound like he was involved at all, just reporting on it, but his name is on the article) linked not to the report, but to a Twitter post with an image of the report.  Do they want us reading this thing or not, for fuck's sake‽

Anyway, here's the supposed "bombshell" report (so called by the co-author I found on Racket):

https://public.substack.com/p/first-people-sickened-by-covid-19

My initial concern is that Substack is where a lot of the misinformation/disinformation sources that were kicked off of other platforms ended up.  That doesn't mean the article is garbage, but it's something to consider when reading anything from that platform.

As to the article itself, I don't see anything new here, certainly no new viable sources.  I'm sorry, but "According to multiple U.S. government officials" without identifying those individuals in any way shape or form is a big "nothing burger" to me.  I can't vet these sources or determine if they even exist.  Who the fuck knows?  The authors aren't telling. 

The claim in the first sentence is questionable: "After years of official pronouncements to the contrary" - what "official" pronouncements exactly?  I see no links to a source on that and the "official" statements on that topic that I have seen have essentially said "maybe yes, maybe no, we can't say for sure" and some have said something to the effect of "we don't have enough answers to say definitively that it was, so it's disingenuous to make that claim," which is not stating the contrary.  Heck, the official Department of State fact sheet they use as evidence later in this very article states that we just don't know and the possibility exists that it may have started in the lab. 

The closest I consider any "official" statement to the effect of it not starting in a lab was Faucci publicly stating early on that the research showed it more likely started in the wet market:

At the daily White House press briefing, a reporter asked: "Mr. President, I wanted to ask Dr. Fauci: Could you address these suggestions or concerns that this virus was somehow manmade, possibly came out of a laboratory in China?"

"There was a study recently that we can make available to you, where a group of highly qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences there and the sequences in bats as they evolve. And the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human," Fauci replied.

https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-throws-cold-water-conspiracy-theory-coronavirus-escaped-chinese-lab-2020-4

While he clearly preferred the wet market theory early on and for a good long time, which was a data-informed theory at that point, he did not state specifically that it could not have come from a lab.  This was the stance of many published sources at that point.  Perhaps the closest authoritative source to make a stronger statement against the lab theory was an analysis published in Nature Medicine in mid-March of 2020 that stated "We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible."  I'm not sure what the authors of the Public article mean by "official pronouncements" but I'm not sure Nature Medicine fits the bill here.

Most everything in the Public article is stuff that's been public for a long time and may support the theory, but is speculative.  Some of the links go to articles behind a paywall, so I can't vet those, but considering they aren't at the top of the article and the initial presentation provides nothing of real value, I don't expect them to be anything but speculative, as well.  Literally the only thing new presented in this article is a claim that some government officials said something with absolutely no way to vet that claim or its source.

I'm in the same boat as I was before reading this.  I'm still waiting for a real answer.  Let's see some official statement or report from these supposed "U.S. government officials".  At the very least some names and credentials.  Some actual data would be even better.  These articles with little to no substance and not actual data or sources that can be vetted are just frustrating noise.

[Uomo Senza Nome]

The Chinese government and of course the lab itself, has made multiple denials that continue to this day. That probably is what they were referring to.

[Anianna]

The Chinese government and of course the lab itself, has made multiple denials that continue to this day. That probably is what they were referring to.

Ah, perhaps. They have definitely impeded investigation on the matter.

[Uomo Senza Nome]

Small Part of US classified Intelligence Assessment was released two days ago.

Intel community releases declassified info on COVID-19 origins and Wuhan lab | Washington Examiner 

Report is Here:

Report-on-Potential-Links-Between-the-Wuhan-Institute-of-Virology-and-the-Origins-of-COVID-19-20230623.pdf (dni.gov) 

(U) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (U) This report responds to the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, which called for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) to declassify information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report outlines the IC's understanding of the WIV, its capabilities, and the actions of its personnel leading up to and in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report does not address the merits of the two most likely pandemic origins hypotheses, nor does it explore other biological facilities in Wuhan other than the WIV. A classified annex to this report includes information that was necessary to exclude from the unclassified portion of this report in order to protect sources and methods, but the information contained in the annex is consistent with the unclassified assessments contained in this report.

The National Intelligence Council and four other IC agencies assess that the initial human infection with SARS-CoV-2 most likely was caused by natural exposure to an infected animal that carried SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor, a virus that probably would be more than 99 percent similar to SARS␂CoV-2.
• The Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation assess that a laboratory-associated incident was the most likely cause of the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2, although for different reasons.
• The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting.
• Almost all IC agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not genetically engineered. Most agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not laboratory-adapted; some are unable to make a determination. All IC agencies assess that SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon.

This is interesting since the FBI long maintained it was lab created with "moderate" confidence.

FBI on Twitter: "#FBI Director Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China. https://t.co/LcBVNU7vmO" / Twitter
FBI on Twitter: "#FBI Director Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China. https://t.co/LcBVNU7vmO" / Twitter

[tirls]

Unless the chinese government grants independent research teams full and unobstructed access, which it doesn't and won't, I don't think that that conclusion is sound. Covid has to my knowledge no markers that indicate genetic engineering. I would love to know what evidence they have.

[mzmc]

Covid has to my knowledge no markers that indicate genetic engineering.

This.

Would anyone put it past the CCP if they had anything to gain? No.

Is there any credible evidence? Also no.