Energy Department suggests lab leak started COVID pandemic in new ‘low-confidence’ report

The U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that the COVID pandemic started with a leak from a research lab in Wuhan, China.

The report, one of several differing conclusions from the U.S. intelligence community, was issued with “low confidence,” the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The DOE’s probe is one of many American and international investigations into the origins of the pandemic. The virus was first detected in Wuhan in November 2019.

Four other American intelligence agencies concluded, also with “low confidence,” that the virus initially spread through animal-to-human transmission, according to the Journal.

But the Energy Department joined the FBI in leaning toward the lab leak theory.

“Right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CNN.

“Some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other,” he continued. “A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information to be sure.”

In May 2021, President Biden ordered agencies to “redouble” their efforts to figure out the pandemic’s origins. However, Chinese authorities have been less than welcoming to foreign investigators.

The Energy Department was part of that effort because it oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories. Its latest conclusion came from “new intelligence, further study of academic literature and consultation with experts outside government,” according to the Journal. The report was recently provided to the White House and certain members of Congress.