US: Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States on Wednesday confirmed that the origins of the devastating COVID-19 virus which led to the global pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in China's Wuhan.
FBI's Director Christopher Wray posted an official statement about the same on the agency's official Twitter handle. Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated in China.
In his official statement, Wray said, "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan... I will just make the observation that the Chinese government... has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing."
Administrator
FBI's latest assessment comes just a couple of days after the US Energy Department confirmed that an accidental laboratory leak in China caused the COVID-19 pandemic globally.
US Energy Department earlier this week confirmed COVID-19 originated from Chinese lab
The US Energy Department on Monday reportedly concluded that an accidental laboratory leak in China is most likely the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. The update, which comes after the agency had previously not taken a position on the virus's origins, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines's office. The conclusion is a change from the department's earlier position of being undecided on how the virus emerged.
The shift in position by the Energy Department is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of national laboratories that conduct advanced biological research. The agency's insights come from these national laboratories, rather than more traditional forms of intelligence like spy networks or communications intercepts.
The FBI previously came to the conclusion that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021 with "moderate confidence" and still holds this view. The Energy Department's conclusion, which aligns with the FBI's, is the result of new intelligence.
However, the conclusion was made with "low confidence," and four other US intelligence agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still believe that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, while two remain undecided.
The update to the 2021 document was not requested by Congress, but lawmakers, particularly House and Senate Republicans, are conducting their own investigations into the origins of the pandemic and seeking more information from the Biden administration and intelligence community.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed over one million Americans and is believed to have originated in China. The new information from the Energy Department underscores how intelligence officials are still putting together the pieces on how the virus emerged, despite the pandemic beginning over three years ago.
