US Energy Department Says Lab Leak Is Responsible for the Covid-19 Pandemic, Kicks Off New Controversy

By Ana Dascalescu

Posted on February 27, 2023

A revised assessment based on new intelligence has made the US Energy Department conclude that the origin of COVID-19 is from a lab leak, according to a new report in WSJ.

The outlet’s report kicked off a new wave of controversy as to where COVID-19 started, as the scientific consensus points to it coming from the Huanan market via zoonosis, jumping from live animals to humans.

However, while the Energy Department is in the minority for believing in the “lab leak” COVID-19 theory, the agency doesn’t necessarily believe it came from a Chinese biological weapons program.

“Four U.S. agencies have concluded that the Covid-19 virus originated at the Wuhan market, the Wall Street Journal reports. The U.S. National Intelligence Council reached the same conclusion. Then there’s two more agencies (including America’s CIA) that are “undecided.”

But there is one agency that decided — with “low confidence” — that the virus had somehow leaked from a lab. (And the FBI also decided with “moderate confidence” on that same theory.)

[…]The new report highlights how different parts of the intelligence community have arrived at disparate judgments about the pandemic’s origin,” writes the Wall Street Journal — adding that unfortunately U.S. officials “declined” to give any details on what led to the Energy Department’s position,” reports WSJ.

The Department of Energy’s position prompted a passionate and illuminating response from Dr Angela Rasmussen, a virologist from the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at Canada’s University of Saskatchewan.