Coronavirus leak from Wuhan lab was 'unintentional', reveals US Senate report

A lengthy report by US Senate has concluded that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was probably the result of a "research-related incident" at a laboratory in Wuhan, giving weight to the lab leak theory, which alleges that the SARS-CoV-2, the virus which caused the deadly Covid pandemic, is the result of a laboratory leak. 

The 302-page Senate report obtained by Axios weighs in on the conundrum over the origin of Covid. According to the report, the nature and early spread of the indicate it that could have been spread because of biosafety issues. 

The report concluded: "The preponderance of information affirms the plausibility of a research-related incident that was likely unintentional resulting from failures of biosafety containment during vaccine-related research." 

The Covid outbreak became a pandemic within a few days after the spread was declared a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020. It caused havoc on mankind, killing millions of people and leaving many more reeling with long-Covid. 

Covid's first case was reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan leaving the experts divided when it comes to its origin as there are two leading theories—the virus was transferred from wild animals or could have been leaked from a government lab. 

The report doesn't provide concrete evidence to quash the animal-to-human transmission, but the Senate report has concluded the latter is stronger. The report is a result of former Senator Richard Burr's probe into the origins of the pandemic and a smaller version of the report was released last year. 

The report was provided to Axios a former senior Republican aide who apparently worked on the report. As quoted, the former aide said, "Since the team did not complete their work before Sen. Burr left office this became a product without a home. Former Sen. Burr has not reviewed this document and it didn't go through the same vetting process our executive summary document released last year did, but this is worth releasing, in my view, and reflects the quality of work that was done by the team." 

As quoted by Axios, Burr in a statement said that the report is "credible and worthy of inclusion in the international effort to determine how the pandemic started so that steps can be taken to prevent, or mitigate against, future pandemics". 

Research by China into Covid origin

Recently, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) researchers have published an analysis of swabs, which were collected at a wet market in Wuhan, a place in China where Covid is said to have originated. The detailed report, which was published in Nature on April 5, has been produced after analysing the samples that were collected in the early weeks of the Covid spread in Wuhan. The report confirmed that animal DNA was present in samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The market has been long linked to the start of the pandemic. 

Despite the several so-called fact-based reports, experts have often argued that a probe into the origins of the pandemic has been hampered by a lack of coordination from China. 

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