FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
"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.
His comments follow a report that the U.S. Energy Department has assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday the U.S. government has not reached a definitive conclusion and consensus on the pandemic's origins.
Wray said he couldn't share many details of the agency’s assessment because they were classified. He accused the Chinese government of "doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate" efforts by the United States and others to learn more about the pandemic's origins.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs pushed against the Department of Energy’s updated assessment, with spokesperson Mao Ning saying that “the parties concerned should stop stirring up arguments about laboratory leaks, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the issue of the virus origin.” China's foreign ministry referred to a WHO-China report that pointed toward a natural origin for the pandemic, rather than a lab leak.
