Report: Lab Leak Theory Gaining Ground in Biden Admin, Officials Divided on Source of COVID
Advisers to President Joe Biden are said to be split on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in a new report that claims that the theory the virus escaped from a Chinese lab is now seen as not only credible, but as credible as any other theory by top government officials.
While even posting comments about the possibility that the pandemic began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology might have seen people censored or banned from social media this time last year, more and more people are buying into the idea that the illness did not originate in the wild.
As the world searches for answers with regard to the origin of the pandemic, even high-ranking members of the Biden administration cannot rule out the lab leak theory, CNN reported.
The left-wing network made the declaration after speaking with people inside of the White House, noting that “senior Biden officials” believe the lab leak theory is “as credible” as the “natural origins” theory.
“Senior Biden administration officials overseeing an intelligence review into the origins of the coronavirus now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild — a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory,” CNN noted.
“Little new evidence has emerged to move the needle in one direction or another,” CNN reported after speaking with anonymous sources in the White House.
There is reportedly a “growing openness” to the lab leak theory.
“Current intelligence reinforces the belief that the virus most likely originated naturally, from animal-human contact and was not deliberately engineered, the sources said,” CNN reported. “But that does not preclude the possibility that the virus was the result of an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where coronavirus research was being conducted on bats — although many scientists familiar with the research say such a leak is unlikely.”
Observers of the virus and its spread were quick to point out the lab’s proximity to wet markets in Wuhan last winter, when a pandemic was first declared.
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Those markets were quickly blamed for the disease.
Per the CNN exclusive with those close to Biden, the intelligence community can not come to a consensus about the origins of COVID.
The report comes nearly two months after Biden issued an investigation into the pandemic’s origins.
“I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days,” Biden said in a statement on May 26. “As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China.”
“I have also asked that this effort include work by our National Labs and other agencies of our government to augment the Intelligence Community’s efforts. And I have asked the Intelligence Community to keep Congress fully apprised of its work,” Biden added.
Biden concluded that the U.S. would work with its allies to “press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence.”
CNN reported that since Biden’s statements, no theory has prevailed within the intelligence community, and that at the end of the 90-day review, both theories will likely still stand.
Those within the intelligence community being briefed regularly about the investigation are reported to included CIA Director Bill Burns, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
A poll conducted by Politico/Harvard this month found that a majority Americans, 52 percent, now believe the coronavirus originated from the Chinese lab.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
