U.S. intelligence has obtained genetic data that might be key to unlocking the mystery of the COVID-19 origins, but officials are having issues in deciphering it, according to an exclusive report.
Multiple officials told CNN genetic virus blueprints of samples studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology might be tied to the origins of the outbreak, leading to some speculation the computers that contained the data were connected to cloud-based servers and potentially hacked to obtain the valuable information.
But the data needs to be deciphered from Mandarin Chinese and studied by bio experts, which is presenting some challenges on resources for the U.S. intelligence agencies, according to the report.
Also, according to CNN, the genetic data requires powerful computer systems from the Department of Energy's National Laboratories to decipher it.
"Obviously there are scientists who are [security] cleared," a source told CNN. "But Mandarin-speaking ones who are cleared? That's a very small pool. And not just any scientists, but ones who specialize in bio? So you can see how this quickly becomes difficult."
The investigation is part of the 90-day review as ordered for the intelligence community on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic by President Joe Biden. That came after the Biden administration announced the end of the State Department investigation into the virus' origins.
Also, this news comes the same week the House GOP report on the COVID-19 origins claimed a massive cover-up by China, the Wuhan lab, and world and U.S. scientists.
In that House GOP report, it noted the genetic sequences were taken down from the internet by Chinese officials in September 2019. Investigators have long sought the 22,000 virus samples from the Wuhan lab and China refused to turn them over — or other raw data from the earliest COVID cases — to the World Health Organization or the U.S., CNN reported.
Two scientists told CNN they are skeptical there would be any genetic data that U.S. scientists did not already study.
"Basically in [a 2020 research paper published in Nature], the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] talked about all the sequences they had up until a certain point in time — it's what most [scientific] virologists believe, that's pretty much what they had," Tulane University School of Medicine virologist Dr. Robert Garry told CNN.
Other sources told CNN whatever data U.S. intelligence is studying will not necessarily be proof positive of the COVID origins, including whether the virus began naturally or was modified in the WIV.
"The most prized technical data in this context are genetic sequences, database entries, and contextual information about the provenance of the samples and the time and context in which they were acquired — information people would use to place them in a narrative of the origins of SARS, COVID," a source told CNN.
Communications might be the proof needed to determine the true origins of the virus, but sources told CNN the "smoking gun" is unlikely to be found in the 90-day review.
"Despite having that complete history of variants, [officials might] lack the contextual information to make sense of it in a narrative way," the CNN source added.
"Even a complete sequence history is difficult to obtain. And doesn't really tell us anything about the origins of the pandemic itself without the context."
Trump administration Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told CNN in a statement the intelligence community has enough information.
"Obviously the more, the better, but we've had extraordinary insight into this topic for many months, much more than has been declassified," Ratcliffe's statement read. "Pretending we didn't is political theater and a classic example of a politician trying to buy time by using the IC as a scapegoat."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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