FBI Director theorises Covid-19 leaked from Chinese lab

Arguments of how Covid-19 began have fuelled divides amongst US intelligence community; FBI Director Christopher Wray is the first to publicly declare his belief the disease ‘most likely’ originated in a ‘Chinese government-controlled lab’.

Appearing on Fox News, Christopher Wray is the first to publicly confirm the FBI’s classified judgement of how the pandemic virus emerged, although China has denied a lab leak in Wuhan, calling the allegation defamatory.

Mr Wray told the American news channel: ‘The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.’ He also added that the theory is based on research the agency’s analysts, including scientists, had conducted.

However, Mr Wray’s high-public comment that emerged yesterday, has highlighted the divide within the US intelligence community about the origins of the virus. Alongside the FBI, the Department of Energy also believes the disease to have emerged from a lab leak, but other authorities have concluded that it first spread from infected animals to humans.

The National Intelligence Council and four other agencies have concluded that the virus originated in animals, the Wall Street Journal reported this week.

Studies suggest the virus made a leap from animals to humans in Wuhan, China, possibly at the city’s seafood and wildlife market – it’s a 40-minute drive from a world-leading virus laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducted research into coronaviruses.

Although the Chinese government have yet to respond to the comments Mr Wray made yesterday, on Monday the authority dismissed media reports that the US energy department had assessed with ‘low confidence’ that Covid-19 leaked from a lab.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Mao Ning, said: ‘Certain parties should stop rehashing the ‘lab leak’ narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicising origins-tracing’.

Alongside the potential origins of Covid-19 casting controversy in America and China, at the beginning of the year it was discovered the virus has caused millions to miss out on receiving vital heart medication. 

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