U.S. agencies sow confusion over ‘lab leak’ theory of covid origins

A report from the Wall Street Journal on Monday said sources inside the U.S. Department of Energy now believe with “low confidence” that the global spread of covid-19 was “most likely” the result of a laboratory leak in China.

The report contradicts four other U.S. agencies that have investigated how covid spread. Those agencies concluded with low confidence that the virus spread through natural transmission from animal to human at a wet market in China. Two other federal agencies also investigated the matter and are undecided on covid’s origins.

The Wall Street Journal report has added even more confusion into an already controversial topic. Intelligence officials are reiterating that there is no consensus where the virus originated. But the report is also reenergizing critics, who are claiming the lab-leak theory is legitimate and there shouldn’t have been so many efforts to undermine it.

According to the Washington Post, U.S. intelligence officials are still under the view that there is no definitive origin of covid, and a 2021 report showed officials have “low confidence” that covid was spread via natural transmission is what everyone should be working off.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, celebrated the Journal report and criticized technology companies and Dr. Anthony Fauci, former chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

“Big Tech censored Americans for questioning the covid lab-leak theory. Dr. Fauci denied the lab-leak theory,” tweeted Kelly on Monday. “Evidence pointed toward the lab-leak theory. Now, the lab-leak theory has been confirmed.”

Big Tech censored Americans for questioning the COVID lab-leak theory.

Dr. Fauci denied the lab-leak theory.

Evidence pointed toward the lab-leak theory.

Now, the lab-leak theory has been confirmed.https://t.co/loFifzvF92

— Rep. Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyPA) February 27, 2023

Congressman Guy Reschenthaler also criticized Fauci and implied in a tweet on Monday that the Journal report should lead to more questions about Fauci’s covid-mitigation strategies.

Dr. Stuart Ray, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told ABC News that even with the Journal report, the full Department of Energy report has not been shared publicly and so it is unclear what exactly lab leak might mean.

“I can imagine that some people are imagining they were just handling bats and someone in the lab got infected in the lab and then went out. There’s a wide range of things that might be meant, but because this report has not been shared, we don’t know what they meant by that.”

Scientific officials have said it is important to determine the source of covid to help fight the next pandemic. Dr. David Relman, an infectious disease expert and microbiologist at Stanford University, told CNN in 2021 that “we want to know what led to this, so we can hopefully try and prevent something similar from happening in the future.”