FBI Director Christopher Wray said his department previously concluded that the Covid-19 virus most likely originated from a “potential lab incident” in Wuhan, China, contradicting scientific claims that it emerged naturally like other previous outbreaks.
(Bloomberg) — FBI Director Christopher Wray said his department previously concluded that the Covid-19 virus most likely originated from a “potential lab incident” in Wuhan, China, contradicting scientific claims that it emerged naturally like other previous outbreaks.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation tweeted an excerpt from Wray’s interview with Fox News on Tuesday night. His remarks follow reports that an Energy Department classified assessment determined that the virus was the result of a lab leak, although that conclusion was given a “low confidence” rating.
“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. The Chinese government “has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing,” he added.
In a report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in October 2021, the US intelligence community was divided over how the outbreak began. The report said agencies concluded that two causes were plausible: that the virus emerged in animals and spread to humans, or that it sprang from an incident at a lab in Wuhan.
Individual agencies weren’t identified in the report. But Wray’s latest comments suggest that the FBI was the one intelligence branch cited in the report that concluded with “moderate confidence” that the virus likely emerged from a lab leak or accident.
Read the US intelligence community’s 2021 Covid report here.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, will likely be asked about Wray’s comments.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Wednesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing that “the international community and the science community” accepted that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.”
Mao urged the US to “respect science and facts,” and stop “politicizing” the issue.
Regardless of the different conclusions, the lack of rapid access to the lab and Wuhan at the start of the pandemic by independent monitors will continue to fuel doubts about the virus’s origins.
Wray’s assertion comes at a crucial time in Chinese-US relations. The two countries have been sparring over issues from Taiwan, to technology and surveillance, and China’s potential support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
–With assistance from Philip Glamann and Peter Blumberg.
(Updates with comment from China’s Foreign Ministry.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.