Initially, coronavirus was thought to originate from the Wuhan seafood market but US intelligence information indicated three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick in November 2019|Ureem2805|CC BY-SA 4.0
A new classified report by the US Department of Energy (DOE) concluded COVID-19 was the result of a mistake at a lab in China, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The findings were made available to the White House and key Congress members.
With this determination, DOE is the second organization in the US intelligence community to join the lab leak theory; the FBI suspected it first.
Out of the eight US agencies investigating COVID-19 origins, two say it is a lab leak and four believe it to be a natural transmission from an animal. But no animal source has been identified so far.
Why investigate?
The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than one million lives in America and halted the economy in 2020.
Investigations on possible origins of the coronavirus picked up speed in 2021 after President Joe Biden’s orders.
Initially, the virus was thought to originate from the Wuhan seafood market. But US intelligence information indicated three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick in November 2019.
Thus arousing suspicion that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic could be due to a leak at a lab.