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.

  • Jimius@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    Lab leaks/accidents are fairly common. This didn’t require some malicious intent or a “perfect storm” of events to occur. There are like 1 or 2 every year, that we know of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity_incidents

    A study investigated and saw the following from 2000 to 2021 (https://www.chathamhouse.org/laboratory-accidents-and-biocontainment-breaches/scale-problem-today):

    “… identified laboratory-acquired infections in 309 individuals, documented in 94 incident reports covering 51 pathogens of varying degrees of hazard. Some of these infections were fatal, and some resulted in the spread of laboratory workers’ infections to others in the community. In addition, the researchers identified 16 incidents of pathogen escape from biocontainment facilities during the period.”

    And that’s not even including all the smaller incidents which adds up to about a hundred a year.

    So a lab leak is not only plausible, it’s very likely. It requires no malice or conspiracy. And Wuhan actually has a lab that was studying the COVID virus. The communist party however has already covered up, so actual evidence is hard to get.

  • afronaut@slrpnk.net
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    4 hours ago

    We’re supposed to trust spies working for nation-states that support Israel?

    • Inucune@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Not every news article and decision on the world revolves around Israel and/or Gaza.

      • afronaut@slrpnk.net
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        1 hour ago

        My point is we shouldn’t be trusting spy agencies working on behalf of nation states at all, which includes pushing geopolitical narratives with the aim of Western supremacy.

        “The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” -1984

    • Coding4Fun@lemmy.ml
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      3 hours ago

      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.

      • afronaut@slrpnk.net
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        1 hour ago

        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.

  • wurzelgummidge@lemmy.ml
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    14 hours ago

    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

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    17 hours ago

    It doesn’t matter where it came from! It doesn’t change the fact that the government and corporations left us die, then they picked over our carcasses.

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    19 hours ago

    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.

      • wisely@feddit.org
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        4 hours ago

        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.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    BBC

    Go back to sleep, this is just repeat cope for failing to handle a pandemic and shifting the blame to another country.

  • Bloomcole@lemmy.ml
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    18 hours ago

    “Germany’s foreign intelligence” LOL
    And who wouldn’t trust the BBC mouthpiece?

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    19 hours ago

    Reporter: [REDACTED]
    Reason: misinformation

    What, we’re supposed to remove UK state-affiliated media articles about German state intelligence assessments?

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      17 hours ago

      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.

  • sittinonatoilet@sopuli.xyz
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    20 hours ago

    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.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    20 hours ago

    The SARS-CoV-2 gain of function research was going on under Fauci’s watch.

    Jeffrey Sachs: