The United States Department of
Energy is now saying the COVID-19 pandemic most likely came from a laboratory
leak in China.
A senior U.S. intelligence official told
the Wall Street Journal that new information caused the Department of Energy to
make the updated assessment.
The New York Times reported that some officials briefed
on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy
Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence,” suggesting its level of
certainty was not high.
The intelligence community has noted
repeatedly that a lack of cooperation from Beijing has made it difficult to get
to the bottom of where COVID-19 originated.
Government officials have been divided
over the origin of the pandemic since it began.
The World Health Organization concluded in
2021 that it was “extremely unlikely” COVID-19 might have spilled into humans
in the city of Wuhan from a lab. Many scientists suspect the coronavirus jumped
into people from bats, possibly via another animal.
However, WHO’s expert group of scientists said last year
that “key pieces of data” to explain how the pandemic began were still missing.
Identifying a disease’s source in animals typically takes
years. It took more than a decade for scientists to pinpoint the species of
bats that were the natural reservoir for SARS, a relative of COVID-19.
On Monday, China’s government rejected the Energy
Department’s assessment and accused the agency of engaging in a political
smear, the Wall Street Journal reported.
AP Wire Services were used in this report.