In an appearance on Fox News, FBI Director Christopher Wray emphasizes the agency’s position regarding the origins of COVID and the potential lab leak. The assessment is not new, but it is far from universal.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Carolyn Kaster/AP
In an appearance on Fox News, FBI Director Christopher Wray emphasizes the agency’s position regarding the origins of COVID and the potential lab leak. The assessment is not new, but it is far from universal.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News that the bureau’s ongoing investigation into the origins of COVID-19 suggests the virus was introduced after a potential lab incident in Wuhan, China. The FBI’s assessment is not the consensus of the intelligence and scientific communities.
“The FBI has for some time already assessed that the origins of the pandemic are likely to be a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Gra said, adding later in the interview that the FBI’s work on the matter continues.
“I will just observe that the Chinese government seems to me to have done their best to oppose and obfuscate the effort here … and that is unfortunate for everyone.”
Taxation is not new. The bureau previously concluded with moderate confidence that the first case of COVID emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which worked on coronaviruses.
But the FBI’s assessment is far from universal. Four other US intelligence agencies as well as the National Intelligence Council say, with low confidence, that COVID emerged through natural transmission.
However, Wray’s words are the first to be made public by a senior law enforcement official following a classified Energy Department report, published by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, saying the pandemic was likely caused by a lab leak in China. That assessment is a report of “low confidence”.
Concerns about the origins of COVID as tensions arise between the US and China
Eighteen US government agencies are investigating the source of COVID-19, and remain deeply divided on the issue. Of these there is no certain cause. Four are inclined to natural causes. Two places are not.
Meanwhile, the evidence presented by the greater scientific community strongly points to a natural cause, through exposure to an infected animal.
The resurgence of the debate about the origins of COVID in the short term of Sino-US relations.
The two sides clash over China’s alleged use of spy balloons in the US; his policy towards Russia and Ukraine; belligerence against Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province; and the dangers of TikTok are apparent.
On Tuesday, in a rare display of bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill faced threats that they believe have culminated in a series of hearings by the Chinese government, led by the newly created House Select Committee on strategic competition between the US and . Chinese Communist Party.
#Gra #publicly #commenting #FBIs #position #origins #COVID #adding #political #fire
