Covid Virus Likely Came From Lab Leak In China, According To US Energy Department

The last few years have had ups and downs of mask mandates, pressures to take the vaccine, and the forced shutdown of countless small businesses while the likes of Target and Walmart stayed open. While many people have recently been vindicated on topics such as the efficiency of the coronavirus vaccine, which doesn't provide any more protection than contracting the virus itself, one theory that many people have speculated for years has come to light. Reports indicate that the Energy Department points to a lab leak as the culprit for coronavirus being released into the world.

Covid Virus Likely Came from Lab Leak in China, According to US Energy Department

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported on new intelligence shared by the Department of Energy, which points to a laboratory leak in China as the reason that coronavirus was released into the public. While previously stating that they were undecided on the origins of the pandemic, the Energy Department has joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation to state that the virus likely arose from a mistake in a Chinese lab. This conclusion is given with "low confidence" and is different from the theory that was previously referred to—that the virus was transmitted from animals to people at a market in Wuhan, China that sells live animals. Low confidence means there has been information obtained but there isn't enough information to fully confirm it to be true. Intelligence agencies make assessments that are low, medium, or high confidence.

Researchers in Wuhan were known to be studying viruses in the family of SARS-CoV-2, and it's also known that lab accidents happened in the past. Reportedly, the Chinese government destroyed evidence from this lab before anyone was able to review it. However, national security adviser Jake Sullivan says there "is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community" and he can neither confirm nor deny that this is what the Energy Department believes to be the start of coronavirus.

Apparently, there are four other federal agencies that claim the virus came from animals and jumped to humans, but these findings are also reported with "low confidence." There is no consensus across the board as to what the definitive cause of the Covid virus was.

"There is a variety of views in the intelligence community," Sullivan said. "Some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other. A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information to be sure."

In 2021, Chinese authorities refused to cooperate with the World Health Organization to investigate a possible leak from a lab that resulted in Covid-19 spreading across the globe. This makes many government officials wary to trust anything that China says about the virus and its origins.