The United States’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday said the agency had determined that the COVID-19 pandemic was caused due to a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Wray told an American news channel, Fox News, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.”
His comments follow, an international daily newspaper based in the US, Wall Street Journal report, on Sunday that the US Energy Department has evaluated with low confidence the pandemic was caused by an unintentional leak from a lab in China.
According to the journal report, a national intelligence panel and four other agencies still stand on the notion that the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of natural transmission, and two are uncertain.
John Kirby, White House national security spokesperson, said on Monday the US government has yet to land on a conclusion and common consent on the pandemic’s origins.
China’s foreign ministry commented on the Wall Street Journal report, backed by other US media, citing from a WHO-China report that the pandemic occurred naturally rather than through a lab leak.
Wray said he couldn’t disclose any more details of the agency’s assessment as it was classified.
He condemned the Chinese government for “doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate” attempts by the United States and others to know the truth behind the pandemic’s origin.
 Director Christopher Wray said the COVID-19 pandemic was caused due to a lab leak in Wuhan, China.){kind=link}