During the peak of the Covid pandemic, the US presented Britain with startling evidence indicating a “high likelihood” that the virus had escaped from a laboratory in China, according to The Telegraph.
In January 2021, representatives from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, including the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, convened to evaluate the possibility of a lab leak. At this meeting, the US expressed concerns about China’s concealment of coronavirus research and military activities at a Wuhan lab.
In a previously undisclosed phone call that month, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shared evidence supporting the lab leak theory with Dominic Raab, then the UK Foreign Secretary, and officials from other nations.
Two officials from the Trump administration told The Telegraph that the UK Government, led by Mr. Raab, seemed to dismiss the lab leak theory, influenced by government scientists who favoured the natural transmission theory from animals to humans.
Mr. Pompeo summarized classified US intelligence reports from the early pandemic phase, assembled by the State Department. These reports, shared separately with the UK through the Five Eyes network between October and December 2020, were described by a former official involved in the intelligence as “gobsmacking” and strongly suggestive of a lab leak origin for the virus.
In a document that was later made public by the State Department under Freedom of Information Act requests, US officials highlighted China’s persistent obstruction following the initial discovery of the virus. They accused local authorities of “gross corruption and ineptitude.”
Newly uncovered research revealed that prior to the pandemic, Chinese military officials had collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and several lab researchers had fallen ill shortly before the virus was first detected in the vicinity.
The findings also indicated that Chinese scientists engaged in “gain of function” research at the institute, which has since become crucial evidence supporting the lab leak theory.
This theory has stirred controversy among scientists and government officials in the years after the pandemic, leading to two investigations by the World Health Organization, which has faced accusations of being hindered by China.
In the UK, government figures, including Boris Johnson, initially rejected the idea that Covid-19 was engineered in a lab, maintaining in June 2021 that “the advice that we have had is that it doesn’t look as though this particular disease of zoonotic origin came from a lab.”
Two former officials alleged that the UK disregarded the evidence from the US regarding the lab leak theory because British ministers perceived it as a contentious American political issue, exacerbated by public disagreements between government scientists and Donald Trump.
“Once the topic became overtly political, the international pursuit of it virtually ceased, as other countries were reluctant to get involved,” one official remarked. “I think the [Five Eyes] nations were somewhat frustrated by how politicized the issue had become in the US.”
Both officials specifically pointed to Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, as a prominent critic of the lab leak theory within the British administration.
While the consensus among most scientific experts has been that the virus likely originated from an animal-to-human transmission, some British officials, including Michael Gove, have since expressed beliefs that the virus was “man-made.”
In November, Mr. Gove informed the Covid Inquiry, “There is a significant body of judgment that believes the virus itself was man-made – and that introduces its own set of challenges.”
Both the FBI and the US Department of Energy have stated that a lab leak is the most probable origin of Covid, although other agencies believe the virus occurred naturally.
US President Joe Biden has expressed uncertainty about the virus’s origins, while the US National Intelligence Council stated last year that the virus “probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure.”
There are now increasing demands for UK ministers to broaden the scope of the Covid Inquiry to examine the virus’s origins.
The Telegraph has learned that a call in January 2021 was intentionally conducted on an “open line” without security encryption, hoping that Chinese intelligence would overhear discussions of Western awareness of military activities in Wuhan.
“We did that deliberately…we wanted to put pressure on the bad guys,” a State Department source disclosed.
Ten days following the call, during which officials noted the UK’s reluctance to participate in a US-led lab leak probe or share its findings, a summary prepared by Mr. Pompeo’s team was publicly released as a “fact sheet.”
Those involved in the release took precautions to conceal the sources and methods of US intelligence agencies, noting that the disclosed information was merely the “tip of the iceberg” of the gathered intelligence.
A UK government spokesperson remarked, “There are still questions that need to be addressed about the origin and spread of COVID-19, not least to ensure we are better prepared for future pandemics.
“The UK continues to support the World Health Organisation’s expert study into the origins of Covid-19. It is crucial that China and other nations fully cooperate with the investigation.”
