WASHINGTON—The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.
The shift by the Energy Department, which previously was undecided on how the virus emerged, is noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Energy Department, armed with “new intelligence,” now thinks the virus emerged from a laboratory mishap in China, joining the FBI in that conclusion, while other agencies think the pandemic was the result of natural transmission. According to the report, the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence.”
