[2023-02-27]华尔街日报 - 独家：能源部现在表示，实验室泄漏最有可能是武汉肺炎疫情的起源

 

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.
华盛顿——根据最近提供给白宫和国会主要成员的一份机密情报报告，美国能源部得出结论，武汉肺炎疫情很可能是由实验室泄漏引起的。

The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.
美国国家情报总监艾薇儿·海恩斯 (Avril Haines) 办公室对 2021 年文件的更新指出了能源部的转变，此前该部门尚未决定病毒是如何出现的。

The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin. The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided.
这份新报告强调了情报界的不同部分如何对疫情的起源做出不同的判断。 能源部现在与联邦调查局一起表示，该病毒可能是通过中国实验室的事故传播的。 其他四个机构以及一个国家情报小组仍然认为这很可能是自然传播的结果，还有两个机构尚未做出决定。

The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research.
能源部的结论是新情报的结果，意义重大，因为该机构拥有相当多的科学专业知识，并监督美国国家实验室网络，其中一些国家实验室进行高级生物学研究。

The Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to people who have read the classified report.
阅读过这份机密报告的人士表示，能源部的判断“信心不足”。

The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with “moderate confidence” and still holds to this view.
2021年FBI得出的结论是，疫情很可能是实验室泄漏的结果，并且“有一定信心”，并且仍然坚持这一观点。

 

The FBI employs a cadre of microbiologists, immunologists and other scientists and is supported by the National Bioforensic Analysis Center, which was established at Fort Detrick, Md., in 2004 to analyze anthrax and other possible biological threats.
FBI 雇用了一群微生物学家、免疫学家和其他科学家，并得到国家生物法医学分析中心的支持，该中心于 2004 年在马里兰州德特里克堡成立，旨在分析炭疽和其他可能的生物威胁。

U.S. officials declined to give details on the fresh intelligence and analysis that led the Energy Department to change its position. They added that while the Energy Department and the FBI each say an unintended lab leak is most likely, they arrived at those conclusions for different reasons.
美国官员拒绝详细说明导致能源部改变立场的新情报和分析。 他们补充说，虽然能源部和联邦调查局都表示最有可能发生实验室意外泄漏，但他们得出这些结论的原因各不相同。

The updated document underscores how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how Covid-19 emerged. More than one million Americans have died in the pandemic that began more than three years ago.
更新后的文件强调了情报官员如何仍在拼凑有关武汉肺炎是如何出现的各个部分。 超过 100 万美国人死于这场三年多前开始的疫情。

The National Intelligence Council, which conducts long-term strategic analysis, and four agencies, which officials declined to identify, still assess with “low confidence” that the virus came about through natural transmission from an infected animal, according to the updated report.
根据更新后的报告，进行长期战略分析的国家情报委员会和四个官员拒绝透露姓名的机构仍然“低信度”地评估该病毒是通过受感染动物的自然传播产生的。

The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency that officials wouldn’t name remain undecided between the lab-leak and natural-transmission theories, the people who have read the classified report said.
阅读过机密报告的人士说，中央情报局和另一个官员不愿透露姓名的机构仍在实验室泄漏和自然传播理论之间犹豫不决。

Despite the agencies’ differing analyses, the update reaffirmed an existing consensus between them that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological-weapons program, the people who have read the classified report said.
阅读过机密报告的人士说，尽管这些机构的分析不同，但最新消息重申了他们之间的现有共识，即武汉肺炎不是中国生物武器计划的结果。

A senior U.S. intelligence official confirmed that the intelligence community had conducted the update, whose existence hasn’t previously been reported. This official added that it was done in light of new intelligence, further study of academic literature and consultation with experts outside government.
一位美国高级情报官员证实，情报界已经进行了更新，之前没有报道过更新的存在。 这位官员补充说，这是根据新情报、对学术文献的进一步研究以及与政府以外专家的磋商而完成的。

The update, which is less than five pages, wasn’t requested by Congress. But lawmakers, particularly House and Senate Republicans, are pursuing their own investigations into the origins of the pandemic and are pressing the Biden administration and the intelligence community for more information.
这份不到五页的更新不是国会要求的。 但立法者，尤其是众议院和参议院的共和党人，正在对疫情的起源展开自己的调查，并敦促拜登政府和情报界提供更多信息。

 

Officials didn’t say if an unclassified version of the update would be issued.
官员们没有说明是否会发布更新的非机密版本。

U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to confirm or deny the Journal’s reporting in an appearance Sunday on CNN. He said President Biden had repeatedly directed every part of the intelligence community to invest in trying to discern as much as possible about the origins of the pandemic.
美国国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文周日在 CNN 露面时拒绝证实或否认《华尔街日报》的报道。 他说，拜登总统一再指示情报界的每一部分投入资金，试图尽可能多地辨别疫情的起源。

“President Biden specifically requested that the national labs, which are part of the Energy Department, be brought into this assessment because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here,” Mr. Sullivan said.
“拜登总统特别要求将隶属于能源部的国家实验室纳入此次评估，因为他希望使用所有工具来弄清楚这里发生了什么，”沙利文先生说。

There are a “variety of views in the intelligence community,” Mr. Sullivan added. “A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information.”
沙利文先生补充说，“情报界有各种各样的观点”。 “他们中的一些人说他们只是没有足够的信息。”

Asked about the Energy Department’s assessment, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) said Sunday on NBC that Congress needed to hold extensive hearings concerning the origins of the pandemic, adding that China has sought to intimidate other countries from questioning whether the virus emerged naturally. “This is a country that has no problem coming out and lying to the world,” he said.
当被问及能源部的评估时，参议员丹·沙利文（来自阿拉斯加，共和党人）周日在美国全国广播公司表示，国会需要就疫情的起源举行广泛的听证会，并补充说中国试图恐吓其他国家质疑该病毒是否来自自然。 “这是一个毫无问题地向世界公开和撒谎的国家，”他说。

The Covid-19 virus first circulated in Wuhan, China, no later than November 2019, according to the U.S. 2021 intelligence report. The pandemic’s origin has been the subject of vigorous debate among academics, intelligence experts and lawmakers.
根据美国 2021 年情报报告，武汉肺炎病毒最迟于 2019 年 11 月在中国武汉首次传播。 疫情的起源一直是学术界、情报专家和立法者之间激烈争论的话题。

The emergence of the pandemic heightened tensions between the U.S. and China, which U.S. officials alleged was withholding information about the outbreak. It also led to a spirited and at times partisan debate in the U.S. about its origin. At first, the dominant view was that the virus likely arose naturally when the virus leapt from an animal to a human, as had happened in the past. But as time elapsed and no animal host was found, there has been greater focus on coronavirus research in Wuhan and the potential for an accidental laboratory leak.
疫情的出现加剧了美中之间的紧张关系，美国官员称中美隐瞒了有关疫情的信息。 它还在美国引发了一场关于其起源的激烈辩论，有时甚至是党派之争。 起初，主流观点认为，这种病毒很可能是在病毒从动物传染给人类时自然产生的，就像过去发生的那样。 但随着时间的推移，没有发现动物宿主，人们更加关注武汉的冠状病毒研究以及实验室意外泄漏的可能性。

David Relman, a Stanford University microbiologist who has argued for a dispassionate investigation into the pandemic’s beginnings, welcomed word of the updated findings.
斯坦福大学微生物学家戴维·雷尔曼 (David Relman) 主张对疫情的起源进行冷静调查，他对最新发现的消息表示欢迎。

“Kudos to those who are willing to set aside their preconceptions and objectively re-examine what we know and don’t know about Covid origins,” said Dr. Relman, who has served on several federal scientific-advisory boards. “My plea is that we not accept an incomplete answer or give up because of political expediency.”
曾在多个联邦科学顾问委员会任职的雷尔曼博士说：“感谢那些愿意抛开先入之见，客观地重新审视我们对武汉肺炎病毒起源已知和未知的人。” “我的请求是，我们不会接受不完整的答案，也不会因为政治上的权宜之计而放弃。”

An Energy Department spokesman declined to discuss details of its assessment but wrote in a statement that the agency “continues to support the thorough, careful, and objective work of our intelligence professionals in investigating the origins of COVID-19, as the President directed.”
能源部发言人拒绝讨论其评估的细节，但在一份声明中写道，该机构“继续支持我们的情报专业人员按照总统的指示，在调查武汉肺炎的起源方面进行彻底、谨慎和客观的工作。”

The FBI declined to comment.
联邦调查局拒绝置评。

China, which has placed limits on investigations by the World Health Organization, has disputed that the virus could have leaked from one of its labs and has suggested it emerged outside China.
中国对世界卫生组织的调查设置了限制，否认该病毒可能是从其一个实验室泄漏的，并暗示它是在中国境外出现的。

The Chinese government didn’t respond to requests for comment about whether there has been any change in its views on the origins of Covid-19.
中国政府没有回应关于其对武汉肺炎起源的看法是否有任何变化的评论请求。

Some scientists argue that the virus probably emerged naturally and leapt from an animal to a human, the same pathway for outbreaks of previously unknown pathogens.
一些科学家认为，这种病毒可能是自然产生的，并从动物传染给人类，这与以前未知病原体爆发的途径相同。

Intelligence analysts who have supported that view give weight to “the precedent of past novel infectious disease outbreaks having zoonotic origins,” the flourishing trade in a diverse set of animals that are susceptible to such infections, and their conclusion that Chinese officials didn’t have foreknowledge of the virus, the 2021 report said.
支持这一观点的情报分析人士强调“过去新型传染病暴发的先例是人畜共患起源”、易受此类感染的各种动物的繁荣贸易，以及他们得出的结论，即中国官员没有 2021 年的报告称，对病毒的预知。

Yet no confirmed animal source for Covid-19 has been identified. The lack of an animal source, and the fact that Wuhan is the center of China’s extensive coronavirus research, has led some scientists and U.S. officials to argue that a lab leak is the best explanation for the pandemic’s beginning.
然而，尚未确定武汉肺炎确实来自动物。 缺乏动物来源，以及武汉是中国广泛的冠状病毒研究中心这一事实，导致一些科学家和美国官员争辩说，实验室泄漏是疫情开始的最佳解释。

U.S. State Department cables written in 2018 and internal Chinese documents show that there were persistent concerns about China’s biosafety procedures, which have been cited by proponents of the lab-leak hypothesis.
美国国务院 2018 年的电报和中国内部文件表明，人们对中国的生物安全程序一直存在担忧，实验室泄漏假说的支持者也引用了这些担忧。

Wuhan is home to an array of laboratories, many of which were built or expanded as a result of China’s traumatic experience with the initial severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic beginning in 2002. They include campuses of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which produces vaccines.
武汉是一系列实验室的所在地，其中许多实验室是由于中国在 2002 年开始的严重急性呼吸系统综合症 (SARS) 疫情中遭受的创伤而建造或扩建的。它们包括武汉病毒研究所的校区、 中国疾病预防控制中心和生产疫苗的武汉生物制品研究所。

 

An outbreak at a seafood market in Wuhan had initially been thought to be the source of the virus, but some scientists and Chinese public-health officials now see it as an example of community spread rather than the place where the first human infection occurred, the 2021 intelligence community report said.
武汉一家海鲜市场的爆发最初被认为是病毒的来源，但一些科学家和中国公共卫生官员现在将其视为社区传播的一个例子，而不是首次人类感染发生的地方， 2021 年情报界报告称。

In May 2021, President Biden told the intelligence community to step up its efforts to investigate the origins of Covid-19 and directed that the review draw on work by the U.S.’s national laboratories and other agencies. Congress, he said, would be kept informed of that effort.
2021 年 5 月，拜登总统告诉情报界加紧努力调查武汉肺炎的起源，并指示审查借鉴美国国家实验室和其他机构的工作。 他说，国会将随时了解这一努力。

The October 2021 report said that there was a consensus that Covid-19 wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological-weapons program. But it didn’t settle the debate over whether it resulted from a lab leak or came from an animal, saying that more information was needed from the Chinese authorities.
2021 年 10 月的报告称，人们一致认为武汉肺炎不是中国生物武器计划的结果。 但这并没有解决关于它是实验室泄漏还是来自动物的争论，称需要中国当局提供更多信息。

The U.S. intelligence community is made up of 18 agencies, including offices at the Energy, State and Treasury departments. Eight of them participated in the Covid-origins review, along with the National Intelligence Council.
美国情报界由 18 个机构组成，包括能源部、国务院和财政部的办公室。 其中八人与国家情报委员会一起参与了武汉肺炎起源审查。

Before that report, the Energy Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory prepared a study in May 2020 concluding that a lab-leak hypothesis was plausible and deserved further investigation.
在那份报告之前，能源部劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室在 2020 年 5 月准备了一项研究，得出结论认为实验室泄漏假说是合理的，值得进一步调查。

The debate over whether Covid-19 might have escaped from a laboratory has been fueled by U.S. intelligence that three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care.
关于武汉肺炎是否可能从实验室逃脱的争论因美国情报而火上浇油，美国情报部门称，武汉病毒研究所的三名研究人员于 2019 年 11 月病重，他们寻求医院治疗。

A House Intelligence Committee report concluded last year that this disclosure didn’t strengthen either the lab-leak or the natural-origin theory as the researchers might have become sick with a seasonal flu. But some former U.S. officials say the sick researchers were involved in coronavirus research.
众议院情报委员会去年的一份报告得出结论，这一披露并没有加强实验室泄漏或自然起源理论，因为研究人员可能患上了季节性流感。 但一些前美国官员表示，患病的研究人员参与了冠状病毒研究。

Lawmakers have sought to find out more about why the FBI assesses a lab leak was likely. In an Aug. 1 letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, requested that the FBI share the records of its investigation and asked if the bureau had briefed Mr. Biden on its findings.
议员们试图了解更多有关 FBI 评估实验室泄漏可能性的原因。 在 8 月 1 日致联邦调查局局长克里斯托弗雷的信中，堪萨斯州共和党参议员罗杰马歇尔要求联邦调查局分享其调查记录，并询问该局是否已向拜登先生介绍其调查结果。

In a Nov. 18 letter, FBI Assistant Director Jill Tyson said the agency couldn’t share those details because of Justice Department policy on preserving “the integrity of ongoing investigations.” She referred the senator to Ms. Haines’s office for information on what briefings were arranged for the president.
在 11 月 18 日的一封信中，联邦调查局助理局长吉尔泰森表示，由于司法部的政策是维护“正在进行的调查的完整性”，该机构无法分享这些细节。 她将参议员介绍给海恩斯女士的办公室，了解为总统安排了哪些简报。

标红字体均为楼主更改，与原文作者无关。

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