The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) reportedly dismissed early intelligence linking the COVID-19 outbreak to a possible laboratory incident in Wuhan, China—even while maintaining advisory ties with U.S. scientists working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. U.S. scientist Ralph Baric, who collaborated with Wuhan researchers on novel coronaviruses, served as an advisor to ODNI’s biological threats division and attended intelligence-community meetings about coronavirus evolution—raising questions about how much the intelligence community knew about high-risk virus research. Baric’s briefing to ODNI in early 2020 reportedly highlighted the Wuhan lab’s extensive collection of SARS-like viruses and flagged weak biosafety protocols; this…

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