German Intelligence Suggests Lab Origin for COVID-19, Sparking Debate

The BND's findings on the pandemic's origins face scrutiny from scientists and calls for transparency from government oversight bodies.

The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has deemed it more likely that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a lab accident rather than natural spillover, citing analyses of the virus genome's adaptation rate.
Virologists, including David Robertson, have expressed skepticism about the BND's findings, pointing to strong evidence of a natural origin linked to the Wuhan animal market.
The BND's conclusions are reportedly based on unpublished data and were shared with select experts, but key source data remains inaccessible to the scientific community.
German government oversight bodies have urged the release of the BND's findings to the public, emphasizing the importance of transparency in the investigation process.
Christian Drosten and other scientists have noted that while the BND's findings are intriguing, the lack of accessible data prevents a definitive scientific evaluation of the lab-origin hypothesis.