Covid-19 'most likely' leaked from Chinese government controlled lab in Wuhan, says FBI director

Washington: Covid-19 pandemic “most likely” originated from a Chinese government controlled lab in Wuhan, said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The FBI chief’s statement comes within days after a classified intelligence report provided to the White House and the key members of Congress by the US Energy Department said the Covid-19 virus leaked out of a laboratory in China.

However, the White House has downplayed and refused to acknowledge this information, claiming that there is still no government consensus on the origins of the outbreak.

‘Covid origin likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan’

In an interview to Fox News, Wray said: “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.”

“Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab. I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing. And that’s unfortunate for everybody,” the FBI director added.

Also Read: US agency believes COVID-19 likely emerged from lab leak in China, say reports

Chinese government trying to block investigation

Wary further claimed that the Chinese government has been trying to block investigative work into the origins of Covid-19.

He informed that FBI has specialists who focus on “the dangers of biological threats, which include things like novel viruses like COVID, and the concerns that they [are] in the wrong hands [of] some bad guys, a hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminal.”

The recent observation by Department of Energy was included in an updated to a 2021 document made by US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’ office.

As per the 2021 intelligence report, Covid-19 circulated in Wuhan no later than November 2019.

Meanwhile, the National Intelligence Council and four other agencies of the US government have said there is “low confidence” that Covid originated as a result of natural transmission from an infected animal.

Also Read: No government consensus on COVID lab leak theory, says White House

The origin of Covid-19 has been a political and scientific debate with scientists and politicians worldwide contenting that the coronavirus infected people from bats, or have been leaked from a lab.

China has, however, placed limits on investigations by the World Health Organization (WHO). Beijing has been opposing the virus lab leak theory and has suggested that it emerged out the country.

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