Republicans in America demand the release of FBI intelligence surrounding the origins of the Covid pandemic

The Covid pandemic story is still running. There is something outstanding and that is an answer to the question: from where did the virus originate? We still don't know because China has been uncooperative. They are being defensive. This is to be expected because one thing is clear: the virus did start in China. It is simply a question of whether it started in a wet market in Wuhan or in a bio laboratory in Wuhan.

Christopher Wray, FBI Director. Image in public domin.

And I've read a lot about this and some scientists think that the DNA structure of the virus indicates that it has been manipulated in the laboratory. This argument is counteracted by that of The Times' science editors: Tom Whipple and Hugh Tomlinson. They say that the virus has not been manipulated in a laboratory. Or there are no signs that it has.

They also state that it has been established that a cluster of infections of people occurred around the Wuhan wet market. Those are the first signs of the virus infecting people in the world. This of course strongly indicate that it started at the Wuhan wet market. That market has been cleaned up as have 22,000 other wet markets in China or that is the report that we have received.

However, the Republicans in America are asking for the FBI to release their information about the origins of the virus because Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI said that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan was the probable cause of the pandemic.

Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas said that he was pleased that the FBI was "finally coming forward with their assessment that Covid-19 leaked from a Wuhan laboratory."

The problem is that there is no consensus about where it started thanks to China's defensiveness. In the West we simply do not have sufficient information or sufficient clarity to assess the origin with accuracy.

Therefore, Christopher Wray's statement doesn't really help. In fact, it muddies the water further.

John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman said that there was no consensus within the Biden administration on the origin of the virus. He said:

"The intelligence community and the rest of the government is still looking at this. There's not been a definitive conclusion. What the president wants is facts."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said:

"A lab leak is extremely unlikely, and that's the authoritative scientific conclusion reached by a joint team of experts from China and WHO after they had visited related labs in Wuhan."

However, the WHO investigation was hobbled by China's defensiveness. Their investigation was widely criticised for involving people with links to the Wuhan laboratory and its scientists and for the lack of access to materials. Therefore, we cannot take with any seriousness what the spokeswoman said.

There needs to be a further study and there needs to be access provided by China to make any further study meaningful. The outstanding question as to how it started is a question of world importance.

Covid-19 is a zoonotic disease. That's why it caused a pandemic. It jumps from animals to people and back to animals. That means all our pets and everyone on the planet is vulnerable to it and mutations of it.

However, it seems that China is more interested in protecting their interests rather than helping to protect the animals and the peoples of the planet.