According to the Wall Street Journal’s report, the US Department of Energy (DOE) now thinks that the Covid-19 outbreak was likely caused by a leak in a government lab.
That assessment was revealed in a classified intelligence report recently shared with the White House and elected members of Congress. The report, which appears to be the US intelligence community’s investigation into the origins of Covid-19, shows that the DOE has changed its assessment of SARS-CoV-2 over time. While the agency previously said it was “undecided” about how the outbreak began, its views seem to have changed after exposure to “new intelligence, further study of academic literature, and consultation with experts outside of government,” the Journal reported.
This new intelligence has not been made public, so it’s unclear exactly what changed the agency’s mind. Part of the US intelligence community and maintaining a network of sensitive labs across the country, the DOE has a unique perspective on facility security and its potential shortcomings.
Although the DOE now supports the lab leak hypothesis, this assessment is stated to be made with “low confidence.” In other words, authorities still don’t have a clear idea of exactly what’s going on. Still, the Journal reports that the DOE is the second federal agency to conclude that the outbreak began as a result of a laboratory leak, recalling that the FBI has come to the same conclusion before.
Despite extensive research resources, most of the US intelligence community remained neutral on the origins of Covid-19. In many past congressional hearings, top intelligence officials, including Director of Intelligence Avril Haines and CIA Director William Burns, have indicated that a lab leak remains a distinct possibility. Some top federal officials, including Robert Redfield, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in President Trump’s administration, have also expressed their personal belief that the outbreak began as a result of a laboratory leak. Also, the recent report notes that the National Intelligence Council, apparently a crossroads of the intelligence community, still considers the outbreak to have started as a result of natural zoonotic transmission, with “low confidence”.
While the possibility of a lab leak is an impressive resource consideration for many around the world, a large group of many other healthcare professionals have consistently voiced their criticism of the theory. Many in the scientific community argue that Covid-19 most likely emerged as the result of a “natural origin” process through zoonotic transmission from humans to animals.
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