A British chemical weapons expert is alleging that behind closed doors government officials in London believe a lab-leak led to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army officer who commanded the United Kingdom’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, told the Telegraph that he believes the official view within the British government is that a lab-leak theory was most likely the cause of the global pandemic. However, he said there’s significant concern about coming out and saying so publicly.
The UK government now privately believes that a lab leak is the likeliest origin of Covid-19, report says: https://t.co/HPbDwm3dae
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) February 23, 2022
“I think the official view [within Government] is that it is as likely as anything else to have caused the pandemic. A lot of people like myself think it is more likely. I think attitudes have changed a little bit. The zoonotic transfer theory just didn’t make sense,” he told the Telegraph. “There is a huge amount of concern about coming out publicly, but behind closed doors most people think it’s a lab leak. And they are coming round to the fact that even if they don’t agree with that, they must accept it’s likely, and they must make sure the policies are in place to stop it.”
De Bretton-Gordon submitted evidence to the government for its new biosecurity strategy to handle “accidental release and dual-use research of concern, where life science research is capable of being misapplied to do harm.” One type of dual-use research is the kind of gain-of-function research that was happening at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) prior to the coronavirus pandemic, where dangerous pathogens were being genetically altered to make them more dangerous to humans.
Dual-use research refers to scientific experimentation that could be applied for both civilian purposes or for military use.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons Monday that the country’s biosecurity policy needs to be updated to guard against “natural zoonosis and laboratory leaks.”
“My big concern is that next time it might not be an accident, because it’s easy to do. If you had no morals and no scruples, why not infect your enemy?” De Bretton-Gordon said. (RELATED: Could This Anthony Fauci Conspiracy Theory Actually Be Real? Just Look At The Dates)
Most proponents of the lab-leak theory propose that the release of COVID-19 from the WIV was an accident, not deliberate. Experts have been split on the plausibility of the theory, which has gained increased traction over the past year after first being dismissed as a conspiracy theory by corporate media and government officials.