A Shrouded Truth: BND's 2020 Revelation on COVID-19's Laboratory Origins

In 2020, Germany's intelligence agency BND assessed a high likelihood that COVID-19 originated from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. Despite supporting evidence of safety violations and shared intelligence with the U.S., the findings remain undisclosed but contested by China, claiming a lack of credibility in lab leak theories.

Germany's foreign intelligence agency, BND, in a 2020 assessment, estimated a significant probability that COVID-19 originated from an accidental release at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to reports from Die Zeit and Sueddeutscher Zeitung.

The intelligence, based on an operation called "Saaremaa" and public data, indicated potential safety violations at the laboratory. The report, commissioned by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, was never made public yet shared with the CIA in 2024.

Despite this, China denies conducting gain-of-function experiments on coronaviruses and dismisses claims of a lab leak. The debate over the pandemic's origins continues amid political tensions and ongoing investigations.

(With inputs from agencies.)