File photo: FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on "Worldwide Threats to the Homeland" on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, 15 November 2022;
Credit: Reuters/Michael A McCoy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On Tuesday 28 February 2023, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency had assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Christopher Wray told Fox News.
His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the United States (US) Energy Department has assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.
Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday 27 February 2023 that the US government had not reached a definitive conclusion and consensus on the pandemic's origins.
China's foreign ministry, asked to comment on the Wall Street Journal report, which was confirmed by other US media, referred to a WHO-China report that pointed toward a natural origin for the pandemic, rather than a lab leak.
Christopher Wray said he could not share many details of the agency’s assessment because they were classified.
He accused the Chinese government of "doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate" efforts by the US and others to learn more about the pandemic's origins.
