This archive report was first published on 19 July 2020.
On January 2018, a US diplomatic cable highlighted a severe shortage of trained technicians and investigators at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a high-containment laboratory at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cable, obtained by the Washington Post after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, noted that ties between the WIV and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston could alleviate the shortage, with the US-based institution reportedly training technicians to work at the WIV.
French experts had provided guidance and biosafety training to the lab, which would continue, according to a second cable from April 2018.
Parts of both cables are redacted.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among those suggesting that the deadly virus could have escaped from the WIV, but he later seemed to back away from the theory, stating that the virus's origin remained unknown.
Assessments by scientists and US intelligence-sharing allies have posited that it is highly unlikely the virus originated in a lab, with the US intelligence community investigating both possibilities.
