'High likelihood' Covid leaked from Wuhan Lab: US told UK, three other allies at height of pandemic

In the thick of Covid pandemic, the United States told leaders of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom that there was "high likelihood" that the pandemic-causing virus had leaked from a Chinese lab, The Telegraph reported.

Washington, London, Ottawa, Canberra and Wellington form Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network. In January 2021, a meeting of these Five Eyes nations was convened to discuss if or not Covid leaked from a Chinese lab. 

According to The Telegraph, in a previously unreported phone call that month, Mike Pompeo, the then US secretary of state in Trump administration, presented evidence that supported the lab leak theory to Dominic Raab, then the UK Foreign Secretary in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's cabinet, as well as to the representatives of Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

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Pompeo reportedly gave a summary of classified American intelligence reports collected and compiled by the State Department in the initial days of the Covid pandemic.

"We saw several pieces of information and thought that they were, frankly, gobsmacking," one former official who worked on the intelligence that informed Pompeo's report was quoted as saying by The Telegraph. 

"They obviously pointed to the high likelihood that this was indeed a lab leak."

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Earlier, it was reported that the Chinese military officials worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the years leading up to the Covid pandemic. Additionally, some researchers at the Wuhan lab became sick shortly before the first cases emerged elsewhere in Wuhan and Hubei province. 

Chinese scientists also carried out "gain of function" research at the institute, which is being cited as a key piece of evidence for the lab leak theory.

China has been accused of obstructing World Health Organisation investigations over Lab leak theory, already a divisive topic among the scientists and governments. 

The FBI as well as the US Department of Energy say they believe a lab leak is the most likely cause of Covid.

(With inputs from agencies)