COVID-19 likely spread through mishap at Chinese laboratory: Report

New information has prompted the Energy Department to conclude that an accidental leak from a laboratory in China most likely caused the novel coronavirus pandemic, a report mentioned. The shift by the Energy Department, which was previously undecided about how the virus emerged, is noted in a 2021 document update released by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

According to reports, the conclusion was a change from the department's earlier position that it had not been determined how the virus emerged, as per reports. The update, which is less than five pages long, was not requested by Congress. But lawmakers, particularly House and Senate Republicans, are conducting their own investigations into the origins of the pandemic and pressing the Biden administration and the intelligence community for more information.

The Department of Energy is now joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread through an accident at a Chinese lab. The Energy Department's conclusion is the result of new information and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of US national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research. The department's insights come from a network of national laboratories, some of which conduct biological research, rather than more traditional forms of intelligence, such as spy networks or communications intercepts.

The FBI previously concluded with "moderate confidence" that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab leak in 2021, and still maintains that view. U.S. officials added that while the Department of Energy and the FBI each say the most likely cause of the pandemic is an accidental release from the lab, they reached those conclusions for different reasons. The updated document highlights how intelligence officials are still piecing together the pieces of how Covid-19 emerged. More than a million Americans have died during the pandemic, which began more than three years ago,as per reports. However, the conclusion was made with "low confidence" and came as US intelligence agencies remained divided over the origin of the coronavirus,as reported. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still believe the pandemic was likely the result of natural transmission, and two are undecided. The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency, which the officials would not name, remain undecided between the lab leak and natural transmission theories, the people who have read the classified report said.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to confirm or deny the newspaper's reports on Sunday. He said President Biden has repeatedly directed every part of the intelligence community to invest in trying to figure out the origins of the pandemic as much as possible. "President Biden specifically asked that the national laboratories that are part of the Department of Energy be involved in this assessment because he wants to use every tool to be able to find out what happened here," Sullivan said.

According to a 2021 US intelligence report, the Covid-19 virus first appeared in Wuhan, China, no later than November 2019. The origins of the pandemic have been the subject of intense debate among academics, intelligence experts and lawmakers. The emergence of the pandemic has heightened tensions between the US and China, which US officials have claimed is withholding information about the outbreak. It also led to a spirited and at times partisan debate in the US about its origins. China, which has curtailed a World Health Organization investigation, has disputed that the virus could have escaped from one of its laboratories and suggested it emerged outside China.

The Chinese government did not respond to requests for comment on whether there had been any change in its views on the origin of Covid-19. However, the fact that Wuhan is the center of China's extensive coronavirus research has led some scientists and US officials to argue that a lab leak is the best explanation for the start of the pandemic. Wuhan is home to a number of laboratories, many of which were built or expanded in the wake of China's traumatic experience with the initial severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic that began in 2002. These include the campuses of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, which produces vaccines.