Energy Dept. reignites bitter COVID origin debate with shaky lab leak stance

Enlarge / The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province in February 2021 as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigated the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (credit: Getty | Hector Retamal)

The US Department of Energy has updated its previously undecided stance on the origin of the pandemic coronavirus, now saying with “low confidence” that it most likely emerged through a laboratory accident, according to a classified intelligence document first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

The change reignites a bitter, often partisan debate over the elusive beginnings of SARS-CoV-2’s global devastation, a debate which is largely fueled by insufficient evidence on both sides.

Still, the Energy Department is in the minority. Of the eight elements of the intelligence community that have reviewed information on the origin of SARS-CoV-2, only two currently lean toward the so-called “lab leak” hypothesis. The other is the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which concluded with “moderate confidence” in 2021 that the pandemic was ignited by a lab leak, according to the WSJ. It’s unclear what evidence that assessment is based upon.