RHHBF - FBI Director says novel coronavirus likely originated from China lab leak

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency believes that the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19 likely originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China.

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray said in an interview to Fox News.

In 2021, CNN had reported , citing sources, that the FBI had "moderate confidence" in the lab-leak theory.

According to the BBC, it is the first public confirmation of the FBI's classified judgement of how the COVID-19 virus emerged.

Several scientists have previously rejected the lab leak theory due to lacking evidence and certain other U.S. agencies had different conclusions on the virus' origin to the FBI's.

Wray further said in the interview that as per his observation, the Chinese government has been trying to thwart and obfuscate the work the U.S. government and its foreign partners were doing.

Wray's comments comes just days after a report that noted that the U.S. Department of Energy's ((DoE)) "low-confidence" assessment that the novel coronavirus most likely originated from a laboratory leak in China.

However, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had responded to the DoE's noting that the the parties concerned should stop stirring up arguments about lab leaks and not smear China.

In 2021, according to a report from the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the intelligence community remained divided on if the virus originated naturally or escaped from a lab.

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