US House Report Alleges COVID Intelligence Missteps
Facts
- A newly declassified report by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee alleges that the US intelligence community missed the opportunity to better understand COVID by not spying on Chinese health professionals more quickly when it knew the PRC was reportedly hiding valuable information.
- Other findings from the report suggested that intelligence agencies haven't made changes to their protocols regarding advance warnings of new global health crises, including novel diseases.
- The CIA and other spy agencies were partially absolved by the report because they were able to raise the warning of a looming pandemic before the WHO made that declaration about COVID on Mar. 11, 2020.
- The report also pushes back against claims from then-Pres. Trump that the intelligence community was reporting on the outbreak as “nonthreatening” or “matter of fact.” The difference between what intelligence was reporting and what Trump was saying was “striking,” according to the report.
- Republicans on the committee released a separate report that focused on COVID’s origins and how the intelligence community investigated them — concluding that the intelligence community didn’t look closely enough at a possible link between the virus and potential biological weapons research by China.
Sources: Wall Street Journal, Politico, NBC, and Foreign Policy.
Narratives
- Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. Trump’s deliberate efforts to undermine the US response to COVID were already part of the public record, but these reports are vital for stressing how badly he bungled the pandemic. The Trump admin. mischaracterized pandemic intelligence for political reasons and tried to pressure health officials into authorizing discredited treatments. These findings are extremely concerning.
- Republican narrative, as provided by The Federalist. The Democrats' report is Monday morning quarterbacking, but what’s important now is what committee Republicans have discovered about obstruction from US intelligence agencies regarding COVID origins. If we’re going to prevent another pandemic, and possibly hold someone accountable for the COVID outbreak, we can’t rule out the lab-leak theory, which is the real bombshell that needs scrutiny here.