US shared intel with UK showing 'high likelihood' of COVID-19 lab leak: report

A British newspaper says Mike Pompeo, when he was the U.S. secretary of state, leaked "gobsmacking" information regarding the coronavirus lab-leak theory to the U.K.

Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) investigate the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus in China on Feb. 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

The reports, consisting of information collected in the early days of the pandemic, were also shared with the U.K. via Five Eyes between October and December 2020. Five Eyes consists of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Information in one document obtained by The Telegraph states U.S. officials accused Chinese officials of "stonewalling," as well as "gross corruption and ineptitude." The information also reportedly showed that the Chinese military had been working with the Wuhan Institute of Virology for years before the pandemic, and that lab researchers got sick soon before COVID-19 was first reported in the area. 

ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE PRESIDENT TO TESTIFY ON COVID ORIGINS, WUHAN LAB TAXPAYER-FUNDED RESEARCH

This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory, center, on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

According to congressional lawmakers, EcoHealth used taxpayer dollars "to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)" in China. 

The NGO disputes that claim.

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Fox News Digital previously reported that EcoHealth Alliance received millions of dollars in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and that U.S. taxpayer funds flowed to Chinese entities conducting coronavirus research through EcoHealth Alliance.

Fox News' Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

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