Merkel denies secret pandemic report, China challenges claims
Was the report on the causes of the pandemic kept under lock and key? Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel denies it, and Beijing appeals.
As reported by the media, the German foreign intelligence service (BND) had suspicions already in 2020 that the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic was an accident in a laboratory in Wuhan. At that time, Angela Merkel was the Chancellor of Germany and was purportedly informed of the intelligence service's findings.
The newspaper "Tagesspiegel" asked Angela Merkel for her position regarding the intelligence findings and accusations of concealing the matter from the public due to political actions. Merkel's spokeswoman stated that "former Chancellor Dr. Merkel fundamentally rejects the accusations formulated in the question."
from the Wuhan laboratory?
According to the newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and the weekly "Zeit," as well as the Swiss newspaper "Neue Zürcher Zeitung," the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) concluded in 2020 that the virus likely originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The Chancellery was reportedly informed of these findings but decided to keep them secret.
Angela Merkel's office indicated in a statement to "Tagesspiegel" that to obtain answers to substantive questions, one should contact the Chancellery, where official documents from Merkel’s tenure are stored.
The German government, currently headed by Olaf Scholz, has stated that it is aware of the journalists' findings. However, it cannot comment on the findings and intelligence activities. In such matters, relevant committees are informed during closed-door sessions.
China speaks out
Following media reports, China called for restraint. "In the matter of coronavirus, China firmly rejects any form of political maneuvers," said Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She added that the People's Republic of China believes that scientific issues should be assessed by scientists.
Not only Chinese state officials but also members of the German Parliamentary Control Committee, which is also responsible for intelligence services, were surprised by the reports.
"Unfortunately, there is a fundamental problem: we learn about approximately 80% of all scandals, blunders, and highly controversial issues not in the responsible committees, but through the media," said André Hahn, a Left party politician who was a member of the Committee until the end of 2023.
"In recent years, this has improved somewhat," he admitted. He added that the coronavirus issue was not the focus of the Committee's activities. The Health Committee would take up the issue of the virus's origin. "If the government had intelligence on this topic, it was obliged to inform the Parliamentary Control Committee. Whether it then makes it public is another matter," commented the Left Party politician.
WHO: This is not the end of the investigation
The spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to the group of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) who spoke with scientists from relevant laboratories in Wuhan. The group concluded that a virus leak from there is "extremely unlikely," she explained.
According to the WHO, the investigation has not yet been completed, and all hypotheses about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are still valid. The investigation from 2021 was just the beginning, not the end. At the end of December 2024, the WHO again called on China to provide data and access to determine the origins of COVID-19.
