A US intelligence community in its report on Friday concluded that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was not developed as a biological weapon. The report also failed to determine the origins of the virus, including whether it leaked from a lab. After the report was released, China said the allegation by Washington that it stalled international probe was aimed at politicising and stigmatising the origin issue.

China said the “report fabricated by the US intelligence community is not scientifically credible”.

“The report by the US intelligence community has not produced an exact answer the US side wants. Continuing such an effort will also be in vain, because its subject is simply non-existent and anti-science,” news agency PTI quoted a Chinese Embassy statement.

“The origin-tracing is a matter of science; it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts. There has been no lack of ‘masterpieces’ by the US intelligence community,” the statement added.

“The assertion of lack of transparency on the part of China is only an excuse for its politicising and stigmatising campaign. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken an open, transparent and responsible attitude.”

However, US President Joe Biden reiterating that China continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information about the origins of the virus.

Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in China, “yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it,” Biden said after acknowledging the receipt of the report.

The Director of the US National Intelligence said that COVID-19 probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019.

The virus, which first emerged in Wuhan, has claimed millions of lives globally and caused enormous suffering and huge economic losses.