FBI director confirms COVID ‘most likely’ leaked from Wuhan lab, claims China ‘foils and obscures US investigations’ – days after Department of Energy unveiled shocking report on virus origins
- FBI Director Christopher Wray first noted that the FBI concluded that COVID originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China
- Wray said the virus was likely the result of a lab leak and that the Chinese government has tried to undermine his agency’s work.
- The FBI’s report concludes the same as the Energy Department’s latest investigation into the virus, but the White House can’t reach a consensus
FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed the agency’s conclusion that the COVID pandemic was likely the result of a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China.
Wray first commented on the FBI’s ruling on Tuesday, reiterating his agency’s initial 2021 findings, adding that the Chinese government has reportedly been working to undermine the damning results.
“The FBI has long determined that the origin of the pandemic is most likely a possible lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News. “You’re talking about a possible leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.”
Wray’s comments come as the White House continues to struggle to reach a “consensus” on how the virus originated, despite an investigation by the Department of Energy coming to the same conclusion as the FBI.
FBI Director Christopher Wray first noted that the FBI concluded that COVID originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China
Wray said the virus was likely the result of a lab leak and that the Chinese government has tried to undermine his agency’s work.
The FBI first reached its conclusion in 2021, saying it had “moderate confidence” that the pandemic gripping the world was the result of an accidental leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Wray said the work was being carried out by top FBI and US government experts who specialize in monitoring potential outbreaks.
Despite the FBI’s conclusion, Wray added that Beijing has continually tried to undermine the work of the US government.
“I will just make the comment that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has done its best to try to thwart and obscure the work here, the work that we are doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing. . do, and that’s a shame for everyone,” he told Fox.
One such case occurred earlier this week when China’s foreign ministry defended the Energy Department’s analysis that the outbreak was likely due to a leak from a Chinese research lab in Wuhan.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning accused unnamed parties of smearing or slandering China — even amid continued calls for China to allow full access to information from its Wuhan facility.
“Certain parties need to stop rehashing the ‘lab leak’ narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing origin tracing,” she said at a news conference on Monday.
She spoke about Chinese cooperation with investigative authorities, albeit in 2021 China turned down an attempt by the World Health Organization to conduct a second phase of its study. The group has denied giving up her research amid China’s obstacles.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning denounced what she called “politicization” of theories about the origins of COVID-19, following an analysis by the Energy Department that pointed to the possibility of a leak from the Wuhan lab
This is an evolving story.
