US Government Report Concludes Wuhan Lab 'Most Likely Source' Of COVID-19 Outbreak

EDITOR'S NOTE: IF... I will repeat this... IF this is proven, then the COVID 19 release would be likely considered an act of war by the rest of the entire world and, not to mention, a crime against humanity. Whether accidental negligence or maleficence with intent, China could be made to admit (which they hate) and pay reparations (which they hate more) to the world by the United Nations. Either way, the tempo of the war drums just increased dramatically. All the more reason to move into hardened assets that are time tested... like gold and silver.

Update (0855ET): Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Wednesday that the US knows that the pandemic began in Wuhan, but that China still refuses to disclose information about their facilities and is engaging in 'classic communist disinformation.'

He added that the CCP must be held accountable.

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A US government analysis leaked to the Washington Times concludes that the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the Chinese CDC is the "most likely" source of the COVID-19 pandemic which has killed over 200,000 people worldwide in roughly four months.

And while we may not have a smoking gun proving that COVID-19 escaped from the Wuhan lab, "there is circumstantial evidence to suggest such may be the case," according to the report. 

Also, it's perhaps the world's easiest game of connect-the-dots;

• In 2013, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology collected horseshoe bats at a cave 1,000 miles away infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

Stored away and forgotten until January this year, the sample from the horseshoe bat contains the virus that causes Covid-19. -WSJ

• Peng Zhou, WIV's head of Bat Virus Infection and Immunization, was researching "the molecular mechanism that allows Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses to lie dormant for a long time without causing diseases," while a press release from his lab was titled "How bats carry viruses without getting sick."
• Zhou's colleague, Shi Zhengli, has been involved in bioengineering bat coronaviruses - co-authoring a controversial 2015 paper which described the creation of a new virus by combining a coronavirus found in Chinese horseshoe bats with another that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice.
• In 2015, Nature magazine expressed concern over Zhengli's experiments with bat coronavirus. The same year, the US government suspended funding to the lab  due to their concern over risks of experimenting with bat coronavirus.
• Meanwhile, the US State Department warned over safety standards at the Wuhan lab in a series of cables beginning in 2015, according to the Washington Post's Josh Rogin.

What's more, while the Wuhan Institute of Virology is located around 20 miles from the wet market where roughly 40% of the original outbreaks occurred, China's CDC is located roughly 900 feet away as the bat flies.

Again, this doesn't take Matlock to solve.

"All other possible places of the virus’s origin have been proven to be highly unlikely," the government document concludes - a copy of which was obtained by the Times.

Chinese authorities have said the origin of the virus is unknown but initially stated that it came from animals at a “wet market” in Wuhan where exotic meat is butchered and sold. They said the virus may have jumped from bats to animals sold at the market last year and then infected humans.

U.S. officials have grown increasingly skeptical of that version of events. President Trump confirmed this month that “a lot of people” are investigating the origin. Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. intelligence agencies are investing whether the virus escaped from a lab or was the result of a naturally occurring outbreak. -Washington Times

"The most logical place to investigate the virus origin has been completely sealed off from outside inquiry by the CCP," the document reads, referring to the Chinese Communist Party - which has taken 'draconian' steps to control information regarding the virus since January.

"A gag order to both places was issued on Jan. 1, 2020, and a major general from the PLA who is China’s top military microbiologist essentially took over the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] since mid-January."

Read Original Article at zerohedge.com