US intelligence agencies have gained access to data on viruses, which was studied by the laboratory of the Chinese Institute of Virology in Wuhan, where the first outbreak of COVID-19 occurred. Sources told CNN.
According to the TV channel, we are talking about genetic research data. There is no exact information from where the US military got such files. As the channel notes, usually such information is processed on cloud servers, so the data could be obtained as a result of hacking.
According to CNN's interlocutors, the United States has acquired a gigantic catalog of information that contains “genetic blueprints” of viruses. Their processing requires a lot of computing power, so the intelligence agencies involved supercomputers at the disposal of the US Department of Energy in the analysis, according to CNN sources. Another difficulty is personnel. The files use Chinese and there are many professional terms. The American intelligence services are looking for scientists who know this language and who can pass the screening of the US security services.
Interlocutors of CNN in the intelligence services say that the information received will help to study the origin of the coronavirus and, in particular, to answer the question whether the pandemic was provoked by a leak from a Wuhan laboratory.
The WHO and the US have previously criticized China for refusing to provide data on early cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan in December 2019.
At the beginning of the year, a WHO special mission went to Wuhan to check. As a result, the mission concluded that the version of the spread of the virus due to an incident in the laboratory is “extremely unlikely.” At the same time, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adan Ghebreyesus, did not exclude such a possibility. “I myself was a laboratory assistant, I am an immunologist, I worked in a laboratory and I know that incidents happen in the laboratory. It happens, ”he explained.
The head of WHO indicated that more complete information from the Chinese side is needed. According to him, only with its help it will be possible to exclude the version of the leak.
Beijing has repeatedly denied the likelihood of the artificial origin of the coronavirus and warned against politicizing this issue.
