The theory that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic can be traced back to a laboratory leak in China is getting a boost, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In an article published on Sunday, the WSJ wrote that the US Department of Energy recently updated its assessment of how the novel coronavirus behind the pandemic emerged: While the department previously said it was undecided on the matter, it now called the laboratory leak the most likely theory. possible explanation.
The department shared an updated assessment, which indicated a lack of confidence, in a classified intelligence report provided to the White House and key lawmakers, according to Journalwhich mentions people who have read the report.
The department joined the FBI in supporting the lab leak theory, while four other agencies and a national intelligence panel believe the virus emerged through natural transmission, and two have not yet decided. Journal write.
The origins of the pandemic have been debated for years. The coronavirus spread in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. The city is known for having various laboratories—including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products—and has been considered the center of China’s coronavirus research, with many laboratories that were expanded or built after the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s.
On the other hand, the city, like many others in China, is home to wet markets, where animals are sold and slaughtered. Many scientists favor the theory that the virus emerged from the market.
In July last year, two extensive, peer-reviewed papers on science from an international team of scientists concluded that the coronavirus may have jumped from captive wild animals to people at the city’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Other scientists who were not involved in the study saw it as a blow to the lab leak theory.
“The study doesn’t rule out other hypotheses. But they really push it toward an animal origin,” virologist Jeremy Kamil, at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport, told NPR at the time.
Adding to the lab leak theory is US intelligence that some Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers requested hospital treatment in November 2019, Journal noted, even though a House Intelligence Committee report published in mid-December last year noted that the men only had seasonal flu.
Republican lawmakers who took control of the House last month pushed for an investigation into the origins of the pandemic, as did their Senate counterparts, keeping promises made on the campaign trail last year.
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