The Washington Post pointed to an internal telegram released by the State Department from 2018 detailing concerns of embassy officials in China about the lack of sufficiently trained personnel at the Wuhan Virus Laboratory, which later became the epicenter of the outbreak of the Corona virus.
The newspaper report said the leaks of the telegram's contents sparked unconfirmed speculation from senior US officials beginning in April that the outbreak had occurred as a result of an accident at the Wuhan Virus Institute.
In May, US President Donald Trump said he saw evidence that gave him "a high degree of confidence" that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory. When asked about the reason for his confidence, he said, "I cannot tell you that. I am not allowed to tell you that."
The Washington Post said the entire telegram had been released through official channels until this week, after the newspaper filed a lawsuit for the Freedom of Information Act for records in April after the State Department failed to provide records for the time period required by law.
She suggested that although the complete telegram does not reinforce the claim that an accident in the laboratory caused the virus to leak, nor does it exclude this possibility, in recent months there has been increased skepticism about accident theory in the scientific community because the genetic sequences of isolation from corona viruses in bats known to be restriction Research in the laboratory does not match those of Covid-19.
The State Department's telegram says the laboratory, which US officials visited in 2018, "is suffering from a serious shortage of technicians and properly trained investigators who are required to operate this highly contained laboratory safely."
The telegram also says that in-vitro scientists were allowed to study SARS-isolated SARS viruses isolated from bats, but they were prevented from studying human-pathogenic SKS viruses in their laboratory unless they were given explicit permission from a specific committee.
The Washington Post reported that the telegram was referred to as "sensitive but not classified." She added that this spring, after Trump's statements about the laboratory, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that there was "enormous" evidence to support the theory that the virus originated in the Wuhan laboratory.
She noted that when the minister was asked on Friday whether he had evidence supporting laboratory theory after the 2018 note, a spokesman for him did not refer to specific information, but he made Pompeo's remarks on Wednesday, calling on China to be transparent.
"They destroyed samples and detained journalists and doctors who were ready to talk about this and did not allow them to do what countries that want to play on a global scale and theater should do by being transparent, open, communicating and cooperating," Pompeo said.
The newspaper added that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not endorse or refute laboratory theory. She stated that this rare announcement by intelligence came after a report in the New York Times that Trump administration officials were pushing spy agencies to support the theory that the virus came from the Wuhan laboratory. The US administration has accused China and the World Health Organization of failing to contain the virus and warning the rest of the world about its seriousness.
The Washington Post concluded its report with what Tom Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins University Health Security Center said, “The complete telegram neither confirms nor denies laboratory theory, and asserted that many of the cable’s allegations should not be drawn out because it was written in January 2018, two years before the time of judgment on This epidemic has begun, and a great deal of change can happen in such a laboratory within two years. "