Angela Merkel's office has strongly rejected accusations that she concealed an intelligence report indicating a high likelihood that the Covid-19 pandemic originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China. Reports claimed that Germany's Federal Intelligence Service assessed this probability at 80-95% in 2020, with Merkel allegedly preventing the results' publication to avoid public panic and potential diplomatic tensions with Beijing. Former health minister Jens Spahn expressed lack of knowledge about the report, asserting that regardless, it would not have changed public health measures during the pandemic.
"The Chancellor rejects the accusation very clearly," her office said in a statement sent to the German Tagesspiegel daily.
Jens Spahn, who was Germany's health minister at the height of the pandemic, denied knowledge of the findings.
Merkel refused to be drawn on the detail of the allegations and directed enquiries to the current chancellery, which keeps government archives.
The virus was what it was and caused the damage that it did, as we know," said Jens Spahn.
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