The once widely dismissed theory that Covid-19 leaked from a virus lab in Wuhan, China is now the most likely cause, according to a new document. 'Accidental exposure' within the Chinese city is believed to be the most likely origin of the virus according to a classified intelligence report provided to White House officials last week.
The Energy Department has now joined the FBI in lending support to the new finding, classified as being made with "low confidence", as the source of the global pandemic. The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) research facility is less than 10 miles from an animal slaughter market where the first series of human cases were clustered.
There is not yet any evidence for a "lab leak" and officials had previously remained undecided on the origin of the virus. According to The Wall Street Journal, their change in position is noted in a new update to a 2021 document on coronavirus produced by the office of the Director of National Intelligence.
READ MORE: Paul O'Grady says illness 'wiped me out' and took months to recover
Opinion on how Covid-19 began still remains divided across different arms of the US government however, with four other agencies and a national intelligence panel believing it resulted from natural transmission. Two other agencies still remain undecided.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan refused to confirm or deny the reports during an appearance on the Sunday on CNN show but chose to emphasise President Joe Biden's push to discover where the virus came from.
He said: "President Biden specifically requested that the national labs, which are part of the Energy Department, be brought into this assessment because he wants to put every tool at use to be able to figure out what happened here.
"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."
He added that the government would share it with the American people "if we gain any further insight or information" on the subject but stressed that there was currently not a "definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question".
British, American and other Western intelligence agencies had almost unanimously dismissed the likelihood of a lab leak at the beginning of the Covid pandemic before a larger contingent reportedly began to believe it could be "feasible" around the spring of 2021.
Covid is believed to have jumped from animals to humans at Huanan Seafood Market, where animals known to harbour Covid including raccoon dogs, hedgehogs, rats and squirrels, were kept in cramped conditions.
READ NEXT:
