WASHINGTON – The COVID-19 pandemic "most likely" started after a Wuhan laboratory leak in China, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday.
He publicly confirmed the bureau's assessment of the lab leak theory for the first time during an interview with Fox News.
"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray said. "Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab."
Since the first case of COVID in the U.S. in January 2020, the Chinese government has tried to "thwart and obfuscate" investigations into the origin of the pandemic, Wray said.
The Wall Street Journal and CNN previously reported that the FBI had "moderate confidence" in the lab leak theory in 2021, a year after COVID-19 reached the U.S.
Wray's admission marks the second government agency to publicly back the lab leak theory. The Department of Energy also has backed the assessment that COVID began in a lab, but has labeled it with its "low confidence" rating. .
Other intelligence agencies are split or undecided on the origin, with some having "low confidence" that COVID-19 began naturally when the virus transmitted from an animal to a human.
However, all intelligence agencies agree COVID-19 wasn't the result of biological warfare, according to the Wall Street Journal.
President Joe Biden supports "a whole-of-government" effort to reveal the origin of the virus that has killed more than 1 million Americans, White House spokesman John Kirby said Monday.
"We're just not there yet," he said. "If we have something that is ready to be briefed to the American people and the Congress, we will do that."
China said Wednesday there is "no credibility whatsoever" to the assessment the pandemic started in a lab and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning accused the U.S. of politicizing COVID origins.
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Candy Woodall is a Congress reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @candynotcandace.
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