this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Germany's foreign intelligence service believed there was a 80-90% chance that coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab, German media say. Two German newspapers say they have uncovered details of an assessment carried out by spy agency BND in 2020 but never published.

The intelligence service had indications that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been carrying out experiments where viruses are modified to become more transmissible to humans for research, they say.

China repeated its denial saying the cause "should be determined by scientists" - and pointed to a World Health Organization investigation which found the lab-leak theory was "extremely unlikely".

The lab leak hypothesis has been hotly contested by scientists, including many who say there is no definitive evidence to back it up. But the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies - and the BND is the latest to entertain the theory. In January, the US CIA said the coronavirus was "more likely" to have leaked from a lab than to have come from animals.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Does it really matter? Many laboratories around the world experiment with highly dangerous viruses and that one leaked. Not that I like it but it's still a fact.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago

Are we seriously back on this again?

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies

ie someone at the CIA who wont put their name to it, and a couple of corporate owned German newspapers who they fed it to

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Only because the propaganda arms got defunded, but the CIA, the biggest one, didn't.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 days ago

It doesn't matter where it came from! It doesn't change the fact that the government and corporations left us die, then they picked over our carcasses.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They keep "believing" that's what happened because they have not presented any concrete evidence that can be used to get rid of that qualifier.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Remember when hinting at this would get you banned from Youtube? Good times

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You can't even say dead or killed or rape on youtube.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah makes me not want to watch anything on there. Wife was watching some true crime and I was so confused on why they kept saying essay (SA) and grape.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Can you please censor ess*y in the future so that it'll be more difficult for me to filter automatically and actually make me way more likely to get triggered? Thanks.

[–] TacoButtPlug 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

God I hate propaganda.

edit: lol at the one cunt who read my comment and was like, "how dare! propaganda is everything. "

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We’re supposed to trust spies working for nation-states that support Israel?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not every news article and decision on the world revolves around Israel and/or Gaza.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My point is we shouldn’t be trusting spy agencies working on behalf of nation states at all, which includes pushing geopolitical narratives with the aim of Western supremacy.

“The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” -1984

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Although I think the support to Israel (which I am against too) does not play a role in the sake of this argument, I agree with you: it independent scientists couldn't find scientific evidences to support that, spies are for sure not reliable.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Okay, thank you for getting that. In retrospect, I can see how my comment might be perceived as potentially antisemitic but, I’m coming from an anti-imperialist perspective. And, the West is going to keep flooding us with anti-East and anti-Middle East propaganda.

So, to me, Germany’s support of Israel and their demonization of China is one and the same.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Reporter: [REDACTED]
Reason: misinformation

What, we’re supposed to remove UK state-affiliated media articles about German state intelligence assessments?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

They are so well trained that even when their own governments retroactively admit they lied, they will not believe it and still say lab leak is a conspiracy theory.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

BBC

Go back to sleep, this is just repeat cope for failing to handle a pandemic and shifting the blame to another country.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

"Germany’s foreign intelligence" LOL
And who wouldn't trust the BBC mouthpiece?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

The SARS-CoV-2 gain of function research was going on under Fauci’s watch.

Jeffrey Sachs:

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Two German newspapers say they have uncovered details of an assessment carried out by spy agency BND in 2020 but never published.

But the once controversial theory has been gaining ground among some intelligence agencies - and the BND is the latest to entertain the theory.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I really don't think it's that hard to believe that some postdoc in Wuhan screwed up and let it loose accidentally.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago

But it is even easier to believe that the CIA and their toady media are lying again

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The complication is the double jump.

In the early days of COVID, there were 2 strains spreading. One of those fizzled out and disappeared after a few weeks. Genetically, they seemed to be independent jumps. A single mistake wouldn't account for this.

It's also worth noting that the first known infected all spent time in Wuhan wildlife market. They got fairly good tracking from mobile phones, even if the direct evidence was destroyed by the containment/cleaning effort.

Basically, the surrounding evidence doesn't fit an accidental leak (2 jumps). It doesn't really fit an intentional release (very geographically focused). It is consistent with it jumping from a sustained infection pool in the market. (Multiple jumps from the same small area at different times).

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That seems like a reasonable challenge to the lab leak hypothesis, but I have to defer to my wife on it. She has a relevant background in microbiology, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacology and says that something about the structure of the viruses suggests convincingly that at least one of the COVID variants was of man-made origin. She's also been working in labs for almost twenty years and has seen too many accidents and near-misses. As a lay person, that explanation makes enough sense to me to find the lab leak hypothesis plausible. Also, I'm not going to disagree with a well-published scientist who is also my wife.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ultimately, it's of mostly academic interest. Where do we need to tighten down on things to avoid a repeat incident. The best answer would be "Both".

Also, do you have a link to any papers talking about the man-made origin theory? I've not checked in a while, but last time I looked it sent me down a lot of rabbit holes, with nothing ultimately backing it up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

I don't have any bookmarked, but I did a quick search and found this one from 2023, which looks at the available data and circumstances to argue that the lab leak hypothesis is stronger than the wet market one. I'm not aware of any evidence that has been published that definitively proves or disproves either.

People seem to have a stronger aversion to the lab leak hypothesis, which I don't understand. To me it seems like the simplest, most benign explanation. However, it does open up the possibility of sabotage. Maybe that's the issue.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Plausibility is not evidence, however. I think it’s dangerous to try to place blame on somebody for nothing more than a maybe.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

At least the lab leak hypothesis isn't as sinophobic as the "wet market" one.