The US Department of Energy (DOE) may have new evidence to suggest that the virus responsible for the covid-19 pandemic originated from a laboratory in China. The news is the latest in an ongoing and contentious debate about the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
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What evidence does the DOE have?
Unnamed US officials briefed on a classified document told that the agency now believes that an accidental laboratory leak in Wuhan, China, started the covid-19 pandemic. This was concluded with 鈥渓ow confidence鈥�. Previously, the agency did not have a stance on the origins of the virus.
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Officials did not disclose what the evidence was and a spokesperson for the DOE told 快猫短视频 that they can 鈥渘either confirm nor deny鈥� these reports.
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Why is the US Department of Energy involved in this assessment?
The DOE oversees US national laboratories, some of which conduct research on genomics and biowarfare. As such, President Joe Biden requested the laboratories be included in the country鈥檚 ongoing investigation into the pandemic鈥檚 origin, said US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in an interview .
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Do other US agencies agree?
Since the news, no US agency has changed its stance about the source of the covid-19 pandemic. Only one other government agency 鈥� the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 鈥� is believed to support the lab leak theory, but for different reasons than the DOE.
The WSJ says the FBI concluded with moderate confidence that SARS-CoV-2 first emerged from a mishap at the Wuhan Institute of Virology 鈥� a Chinese laboratory that carries out research on coronaviruses. Researchers may have accidentally contracted the virus during experiments, animal handling or sampling due to , according to a 2021 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
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What is the evidence the virus originated elsewhere?
Most evidence points to a seafood market in China as the source of covid-19. The earliest known cases in 2019 came from the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, where live animals susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 were being sold. A paper published in found evidence that more than one person became infected with covid-19 after exposure to these animals.
A report published by the in 2021 came to the same conclusion, stating that the virus was transmitted from bats to humans and did not escape from a laboratory. Four other US intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council also agree with this theory, though they cite low confidence in their decision.
However, the governments of 14 countries, including the US, UK and Australia, said in a joint in 2021 that they were concerned the WHO鈥檚 investigation lacked adequate data.
The US government is continuing to investigate the source of the virus, said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary in a press briefing on 27 February. 鈥淭his is something that the president takes very seriously,鈥� she said.
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What has been the response to the news of the DOE assessment?
China鈥檚 Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, pushed back against the claims during a briefing on 27 February. According to CNN, Ning said a 2021 report by China and WHO experts found that a lab leak origin for covid-19 was 鈥渉ighly unlikely鈥�.
Researchers have also pushed back, including virologist Angela Rasmussen at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. She : 鈥淔or now, I see no evidence that suggests the current scientific evidence base is incorrect. And that evidence base continues to suggest the pandemic originated via zoonotic spillover at the Huanan market, in association with the live animal trade.鈥�
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