Corona report
Top virologist Drosten criticizes secret service
The recently published report by the German secret service on the origin of the coronavirus has caused quite a stir. While the Chinese government speaks of a "political maneuver", top German virologist and former advisor to the Merkel government Christian Drosten has strongly criticized the Federal Intelligence Service. These are merely "allegations".
Kronen Zeitung als bevorzugte Google-Quelle hinzufügen As reported, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) considers it likely that a laboratory accident in Wuhan, China, was the cause of the global coronavirus pandemic. According to information from the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, the German foreign intelligence service came to this conclusion back in 2020. The investigation was commissioned by the Chancellery, which is said to have kept the findings under lock and key. Angela Merkel was German Chancellor at the time.
In response to these allegations, the former Chancellor's office stated that all questions about government documents from that time should be directed to the Federal Chancellery, as Merkel did not have them in her private office. She "fundamentally rejects" the allegations of a cover-up, a spokeswoman for Merkel told the "Tagesspiegel".
Drosten: "These are just allegations"
Merkel's former advisor has now also come to the defense of the former head of government and expressed considerable doubts about the assessment of the Federal Intelligence Service. The latter should disclose its sources, Drosten demanded on Friday. Because at the moment, these are merely allegations. "Regardless of whether a professor or an intelligence agency or a politician makes such claims, they are just claims. For an evaluation according to scientific standards, the source data would have to be available and published in full so that the analyses are comprehensible and reproducible for other scientists," said the head of the Charité in Berlin.
Based on the data available to him and his research colleagues, which is far from sufficient, there is a "clear overwhelming probability of a natural origin". Since the outbreak of the pandemic in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, there have been discussions about whether the virus originated in a laboratory or was transmitted to humans from animals at a market. The Chinese government vehemently denies the laboratory version.
CIA also considers laboratory theory probable
The background to the debate is also the fact that so-called SARS-like coronaviruses were being worked on in laboratories in China. In January, the US intelligence agency CIA announced that it suspected that the coronavirus originated in a laboratory. The US agency had previously stated for years that it could not say whether the coronavirus came from a laboratory incident or was of natural origin.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Da dieser Artikel älter als 18 Monate ist, ist zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt kein Kommentieren mehr möglich.
Wir laden Sie ein, bei einer aktuelleren themenrelevanten Story mitzudiskutieren: Themenübersicht.
Bei Fragen können Sie sich gern an das Community-Team per Mail an forum@krone.at wenden.