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German Spy Agency Concluded COVID Virus Likely Leaked From Lab (reuters.com) 188

An anonymous reader shares a report: Germany's foreign intelligence service in 2020 put at 80%-90% the likelihood that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was accidentally released from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, two German newspapers reported on Wednesday.

According to a joint report by publications Die Zeit and Sueddeutscher Zeitung, Germany's spying agency BND had indications that the institute had conducted gain-of-function experiments, whereby viruses are modified to become more transmissible to humans for research purposes.

It also had indications that numerous violations of safety regulations had occurred at the lab, the papers said. The spy agency assessment's was based on an unspecified intelligence operation code-named "Saaremaa" as well as on publicly-available data. It had been commissioned by the office of Germany's chancellor at the time, Angela Merkel, but never published, the report said.

German Spy Agency Concluded COVID Virus Likely Leaked From Lab

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  • by nwaack ( 3482871 ) on Thursday March 13, 2025 @03:38PM (#65230975)
    Because if they had published it, everyone involved in the report would immediately be labeled all sorts of disparaging words ending in "-ist" and "-phobe" regardless of how sound their logic was. Nonsense like that was why the orange one got elected.
    • by wyHunter ( 4241347 ) on Thursday March 13, 2025 @03:41PM (#65230995)
      And yet Orange man pushed the lab leak theory ... I guess TDS has overcome science in the USA.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        Actually the US intelligence agencies conclude the same thing for the same reason but because republicans headed up he committee liberals and their legacy media dismissed the findings.

        • by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Thursday March 13, 2025 @05:59PM (#65231399) Homepage

          There is no consensus among US intelligence agencies that it came from a lab.

          Four intelligence agencies have concluded natural exposure caused the pandemic (at least until Dec 2024).
          Only two intelligence agencies came to that conclusion, and each blamed a different institute!
          The FBI said it is the WIV, and the Dept of Energy said it is the Wuhan CDC.

          And political leaning is at play as you say, but in the other direction: the FBI head was a Trump first term appointee, and the the new CIA head changed its stance after Trump took office for the second term.

          Oh, and don't take my word on any of that ... here are the references:

          report of the Directorate of National Intelligence [archive.org]

          New York Times [archive.is]

          New Trump appointed CIA head changed the agency's stance to favor the lab leak theory [theguardian.com]

        • That's completely false. The US intelligence agencies completely disagreed on the cause. You're cherry picking the ones you agree with.

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          The CIA only said it was likely to be a lab leak after Trump took office again, so it's as likely to be an attempt to ward off attacks on their agency as a real conclusion. Look at what has happened to the FBI, in retaliation for upsetting Trump.

    • I think Germany rather has no interest to provoke China like that
    • Yet another a good point why orange man has social license to decimate the established order. The established order let all this happen to keep their profits from cheap chinese slave labour.
  • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Thursday March 13, 2025 @03:40PM (#65230989) Journal

    All the evidence for finding covid at the Wuhan wet market. Nor the first people who were reported to have covid who had nothing to do with lab, but did frequent the market.

    This is one of those times the "secret" evidence needs to be disclosed. They can't hide behind sources. They need to show their evidence.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by wiggles ( 30088 )

      I read (though admittedly I can't remember where) that the lab and the wet market shared a subway line.

      The lab leak theory says that someone at the lab got infected while at the lab, then left and took the train, spreading it there.

      • by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Thursday March 13, 2025 @04:22PM (#65231123) Journal
        This article [technologyreview.com] mentions the market is a half mile from the Hunan railway station, but that's it. It goes into detail how one virologist traced everything back to the wet market.

        There is one scientist later on in the first part who does say they couldn't rule out someone who may have been infected at the lab visiting the market and starting the ball rolling, but they also say there is no evidence to back this up. Considering the number of people who ride that line each day, if there was a sick person from the lab spreading their infection, there should have been far more people getting sick all over the place. That didn't happen. The earliest known infections were all clustered around the market.

        This article [acsh.org] from February describes how zootonic spillover occurs. What they describe, based on the evidence, is what happened.

        But again, if someone in the intelligence community is saying it inadvertently started in the lab, they need to provide the evience. Otherwise, this is another Iraq WMD scenario.
        • This article from February describes how zootonic spillover occurs. What they describe, based on the evidence, is what happened.

          There is no specific objective evidence to support spillover hypothesis. Like lab leak the only evidence publicly known to exist at present takes the form of inductive arguments. There was never any precursor virus or animal reservoir found despite intensive efforts to find them.

          But again, if someone in the intelligence community is saying it inadvertently started in the lab, they need to provide the evience. Otherwise, this is another Iraq WMD scenario

          Anyone making claims needs to put up or shut up. It doesn't matter what side you take the requirements are the same.

        • There is one scientist later on in the first part who does say they couldn't rule out someone who may have been infected at the lab visiting the market and starting the ball rolling, but they also say there is no evidence to back this up. Considering the number of people who ride that line each day, if there was a sick person from the lab spreading their infection, there should have been far more people getting sick all over the place. That didn't happen. The earliest known infections were all clustered aro

        • by e3m4n ( 947977 )

          I remember even MI-6 stating evidence pointing to lab leak. They had claimed there were some unique aids traits in covid-19 that did not exist before (rapid mutations). They pointed to gain of function testing as to how/why traits from the aids virus were present. Couple all these agencies pointing to a lab leak with Chinas long long history of covering up shit like SARS, and it looks pretty bad for China. Yet the beer maker Corona had a more significant impact than China suffered. In fact China profited t

        • But again, if someone in the intelligence community is saying it inadvertently started in the lab, they need to provide the evience. Otherwise, this is another Iraq WMD scenario.

          First of all, it isn't "someone", as in an individual, saying this. It is the consensus of entire team(s) of people working at the intelligence agency came to this conclusion studying all the evidence they had. Do you not think they had access to and considered whatever piece of information you found publicly on the internet that makes you believe otherwise?

          Secondly, it wasn't even a single intelligence agency at one country, but is now more than one totally independent intelligence agency, with difference

        • Even in 2021, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists - hardly a right wing organization - laid the case (both the likelihood of the lab case and Daszak 's ass covering rationale, as well as the reasons the animal theory was unlikely) for the lab leak theory out pretty clearly.

          https://thebulletin.org/2021/0... [thebulletin.org]

    • by Stormwatch ( 703920 ) <rodrigogirao@h o t mail.com> on Thursday March 13, 2025 @04:05PM (#65231061) Homepage

      Researchers from that lab sought medical help with rona symptoms a month before the first rona cases were officially reported by the Chinese government. Here. [yahoo.com]

      • Again, it does not say explicitly this is what happened. It says from an intelligence source. Either they have the information or they don't. Even the most recent CIA asessment does not say the lab leak theory is valid. It says it has low confidence.

        Considering this came from the Trump administration, if they had any evidence to support this it would have been blasted from the towers.

        • Considering this came from the Trump administration, if they had any evidence to support this it would have been blasted from the towers.

          It didn't come from the Trump administration.

          "The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on the orders of President Donald Trump's pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director."

          https://www.voanews.com/a/cia-... [voanews.com]

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by markdavis ( 642305 )

        Nor does it explain the delay in China releasing the genomic data. Or the disappearance of Chinese whistleblowers. Or the gain-of-function Fauchi coverup/lies. There is a ton of fishy business surrounding something that seems pretty obvious.

        Some people scream "but there is no evidence", well, I suppose you can go with what little "evidence" China supplied, to try and support a wet-market theory. And lack of evidence doesn't make something not true, just not verifiable.

        Common-sense view: a novel coronavi

      • by cpurdy ( 4838085 )
        It was already an epidemic in Wuhan by 22 November, which is the date that US intelligence first briefed trump in the White House on the outbreak in China. (I personally was informed of the epidemic on 11 December by a friend in Beijing, and neither of us is in immunology or epidemiology, or any medical field for that matter.) The article you linked to is simply based on incorrect or outdated information. The epidemic started in Wuhan probably in late October or early November, although Wikipedia cites pati
    • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      Nothing found at the market was inconsistent with a lab leak origin, there was no animal found at the market... the worker who the virus hitched a ride with stopped at the market after work.

      • Nothing found at the market was inconsistent with a lab leak origin, there was no animal found at the market... the worker who the virus hitched a ride with stopped at the market after work.

        False. Animals were found at the market AND investigators narrowed it down to what type [cnn.com].

        After an in-depth analysis of the genetic material from hundreds of swabs taken from the walls, floors, machines and drains inside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China — a site that’s been described as an epicenter of early spread of Covid-19 — scientists say they now know exactly which species of animals were in the same area where investigators also found the most positive samples the virus that causes Covid-19.

        Species present in the areas where the highest numbers of SARS-CoV-2 samples were found include raccoon dog, hoary bamboo rat, dog, European rabbit, Amur hedgehog, Malayan porcupine, Reeves’s muntjac, Himalayan marmot and masked palm civet.
        . . .
        Of the animals present at the market, rabbits, dogs and raccoon dogs are known to be susceptible to Covid-19 infections. Raccoon dogs have also been shown to transmit the infection, making them a strong candidate to be the animals that first passed the virus to humans.

    • It seems plausible to me that some janitor at the lab flogged a test animal to someone at the wet market instead of properly disposing of it
  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Thursday March 13, 2025 @04:36PM (#65231155)

    So no independent veruification of the claims is possible. Hence their analysis is worthless.

    • by Mordain ( 204988 )

      Data? That's not what spy agencies are up to. They are about hunting down sources and clues. They won't share their sources, for obvious reasons.

  • The outbreak spread from a city with an Institute of Virology-lab in it. File it under: No shit.
    • The outbreak spread from a city with an Institute of Virology-lab in it. File it under: No shit.

      Or maybe, correlation does not imply causation, especially when there are several alternate and equally (if not more) plausible theories in play. But glad you came out saying that you had already made up your mind before anyone even started discussing causality.

  • Mr "I am Science" Fauci, the research he authorized, the funding he authorized, and the amount of $ he made during COVID.

    Is that allowed now? Or are we asserting the German Intel Services are secretly MAGA?

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      Name someone better qualified in the field of virology than Fauci.

      Bonus points if you can explain what gain of function means and whether it's good or bad.

  • The technology to create COVID-19 via gain of function research simple speaking did not exist in 2019. Back in 2019, any virus created via gain of function research was basically pathetic at infecting actual people due to problems with the gain of function research methods at the time.
  • ...because in 2020 knowledge of the virus was limited. For example, changes that initially looked like tampering eventually were found in (natural) relatives of the virus. Viruses can and do exchange DNA (pervs!). Just because one can't initially think how nature could do something is not a reason to conclude it was artificial.

    Look how many times they found "likely" signs of life on Mars only to back off. In one case the odd "organic like" nature of the soil in probe tests was eventually replicated via iner

    • ...because in 2020 knowledge of the virus was limited. For example, changes that initially looked like tampering eventually were found in (natural) relatives of the virus. Viruses can and do exchange DNA (pervs!). Just because one can't initially think how nature could do something is not a reason to conclude it was artificial.

      You need to do a probabilistic analysis. Of course it can happen, but what is the probability? This sort of thing [xkcd.com].

      I haven't seen anyone do a probabilistic analysis. I unfortunately am incapable of doing it, but it needs to be done.

  • I care what epidemiologists are saying and they're saying it wasn't leaked from a lab. They're saying that because that's what the evidence says.

    I don't know what the German spy agencies are up to but whatever it is it's not good. I do find it hilarious that the sort of conspiracy theory nut jobs who would normally disbelieve a spy agency if they told them the sky was blue suddenly are all in on it.

    The real problem though here is that by saying it's a lab leak it means we are going to blow off addre
  • You might ask why a 5 year old report is being leaked now. Like most information on the internet, this is propaganda. The only questions who is it serving and is it true.
  • It's astonishing to me that, even within a fairly logical group like the slashdot crowd, nobody has pointed out that these two things can both be true. The market was likely a rich source of new pathogens for the lab to study. And, if the scientists were even remotely good at their job, they would have known there was human transmission of a new coronavirus and tried to study it. They were likely under pressure from the CCP to identify it quicky and ended up catching it themselves. The real lesson here
    • by rta ( 559125 )

      Both can be true, but that PARTICULAR scenario is unlikely.

      SARS-CoV-2 is a most closely related to a virus from bats, and the lab is known to have been working on bay viruses that they collected from caves in the wild.

      The virus at the market was already quite infectious to humans. The question is whether or escaped from the lab and made it to the market or where it made it to the market without any involvement of the WIV.

      • I'm not suggesting it escaped the lab and made it to the market. I'm suggesting it made it to the market, the lab discovered it, and then the lab spread if further in their haste to identify and understand the newly spreading disease. Somebody from the lab probably recognized that there was a disease spreading from the market and it was a coronavirus similar to the ones they were researching. If I were a virologist, I would find this exciting. So they went and got samples and started working in a hurry.
  • ...which may be plausible but provided no proof.
    Now depending on whether you are so inclined you may confuse said conclusion with proof to supposedly justify political bias.
    After all they have some of the best intelligence and the best people and the best conclusions.
  • It came from CHINA. Indisputable.
  • It just doesn't make sense. If you want to dabble with virii, corona is the worst place to start becaus they mutate so quickly on their very own. And why would to dabble with something so uncontrollable like SARS pathogens?

    This "lab theory" is likely just a pet theory to make things interesting and ward of the more scary reality: That this sort of thing basically just emerges without us having any real control, other than perhaps teaching Chinese agriculture basic modern hygene.

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