Republican lawmakers told President Biden on Monday to declassify the intelligence behind the Department of Energy’s conclusion the coronavirus pandemic most likely resulted from a laboratory leak in China.
It was unclear what intelligence led energy officials to make the conclusion, which was issued with “low confidence” — meaning a level of uncertainty remained. Officials updated their assessment based on new intelligence, further review of academic literature and consultations with experts outside the government, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the conclusions in a classified intelligence report to Congress and the White House.
Sen. Mike Braun, Indiana Republican, pointed to legislation he sponsored to make all intelligence related to the virus’s origins available to the American public.The new assessment adds another layer of confusion to the conflicting assessments from the U.S. government. Multiple agencies have been trying to pinpoint the source of the virus for years.
The lab-leak theory, which was initially discredited as disinformation by the political left, gained credence late in the Trump administration and was bolstered by evidence that some workers at the Wuhan lab were hospitalized for flu-like illness before the virus exploded across the city. The FBI previously concluded with moderate confidence that a lab leak was responsible for the virus’s spread, while intelligence agencies have determined with low confidence the virus emerged from natural channels, according to a review Mr. Biden ordered in 2021.
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