Editor's note: Xin Ping is a commentator on international affairs. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Collecting evidence and information as directed - that is the mission of the intelligence community. Now the secret service in the United States is tasked to identify the origins of COVID-19. This is science, a new and demanding field for the spy agencies.

The conclusion of the World Health Organization (WHO) after two field visits to China should relieve much burden. "It is 'extremely unlikely' that the virus leaked from a lab", WHO said, adding that an accident is the least possible cause for the pandemic. In other words, the escape of a man-made virus can be ruled out and natural origins should be studied. Still, the U.S. intelligence community is stubbornly trying to make the impossible possible.

Make no mistake. It has been more than one year and a half since the early reports of COVID-19 cases, and scientists have yet found a definitive answer. But the U.S. government has absolute faith in its spies to outcompete experts within just 90 days. No false modesty among the agents too, who believe that any progress would help to narrow the differences among scientists, politicians and intelligence. Really? Why are they so confident?

Scientists can answer the questions if they are allowed to speak out. Experts across the world and especially those arguing for animal-human transmission have been acting oddly lately: Doctor Fauci twisted his previous argument. Professor Daszak fell silent. Edward Holmes stopped updating his Twitter.

The truth fighters are under great stress. On the one hand, their conscience forbids them from lying just to please the American or other western authorities. On the other, they are seeing their titles removed, reputation damaged, health challenged and life threatened. Between the rock and the hard place, there is no other choice than to shut up.

Dr. Fauci, or Captain America, is facing pressure from both the White House and Capitol Hill. Having lived through the "situation where science was distorted and/or rejected" under the Trump administration when scientists faced chilling pressure, Fauci is treated much better as the top medical adviser and should naturally behave as President Biden rendered support. 

In Congress, Republicans have not minced attacks at the top expert, calling for his resignation and hyping up "collusion with China". Fauci made a compromise. He changed his tune about the origins and rescinded the dismissal of the lab-leak theory.

British scientist Dr. Peter Daszak, president of the U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance, keeps close contact with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). With much time spent working with the Chinese experts, he has called lab leak a conspiracy theory and nonscientific from the start. He stands his ground in papers, interviews and field visits regardless of the frequent personal attacks. Lately, he has been "recused" from the UN-backed Lancet COVID-19 Commission work on the origins of the pandemic. As for the mistreatment, he is not alone.

Australian scientist Edward Holmes was active on Twitter clearing the air but stopped doing so for nearly three months. On June 9, he published an article titled "identification of novel bat coronavirus sheds light on the evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses" with other experts on the journal Cell. The paper further supported the scenario where the virus emerged naturally, caught the attention of the Australian government and incurred investigation. Facing death threat letters and intimidation in all forms, Dr. Holmes is now under mental health treatment.

Scientists' hair stands on end. There may be fewer people like Australian virologist Danielle Anderson who dares to share what the targeted WIV lab she worked in is really like. It has the highest biosafety designation, she said, and she is "dumbfounded by the portrayal of the lab by some media outside China, and the toxic attacks on scientists." 

The mission for the U.S. intelligence is self-explanatory: to blame the outbreak on China whatever it takes. Flashback to 2003 and the vial of detergent before the Iraq War. It should still remind the United States of the huge embarrassment and the dark stain on its credibility when politics override facts.

Maybe it's not just politics at work. The National Counterproliferation Center (NCPC) under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence coordinates the origins review process. A quick note: the NCPC manages intelligence about bio-weapons as its everyday job. Coincidence? The United States has more than 200 bio-labs across the world. Virus leak in the biochemical research base Fort Detrick has not been explained. Mystery remains as to the 2019 outbreak of respiratory diseases in Virginia and the EVALI outbreak in Wisconsin.

Perhaps by looking the other way, to China for example, could help the United States get a clean slate. But history has proved, if the country picks the wrong enemy while the virus gets away, many more innocent lives are exposed to risks and many more serious pandemics are on the way. No American wants an "America first" in this sense.

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