German government urged to share report on Covid lab leak theory
The German parliament's oversight committee has called on the government to share the findings of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic with the public, after reports that the government covered it up.
"The committee expressly welcomes the interest in clarification and the investigation process itself," the committee said in a statement after a meeting on Thursday evening.
It added that it expects the government to inform the public accordingly after the conclusion of the investigations.
The meeting came after several newspapers reported that the German chancellery had asked scientists to examine evidence from the national BND spy agency regarding a theory that the virus had originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The reports published in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit said the BND had concluded in 2020 that there was a strong likelihood the coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab, but the finding was never released to the public.
Investigators concluded there was an 80-95% likelihood that a lab leak was to blame, based on information in the public domain, the papers said.
The theory posits that the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease, originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducted research on coronaviruses.
The evidence was to be evaluated by a panel of experts, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported.
The other major theory for the pandemic's origin is that the virus had a natural origin, just like the SARS outbreak in 2002-03.
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