FBI Director 'confirms' COVID-19 originated from a lab in China's Wuhan

• Image Credit: Google

• Mar 1, 2023 | Dhupali Das

The World Health Organization (WHO) had launched an investigation into the lab's origins. The United States has claimed that the Chinese government is...

Digital Desk: Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Christopher Wray, said on Wednesday that the coronavirus that triggered the worst pandemic of the century originated from China's Wuhan lab. The FBI tweeted that the coronavirus pandemic was caused by a lab incident.

"FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China," tweeted the FBI.

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan... I will just make the observation that the Chinese government has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we are doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing," he added in a statement.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a new intelligence input led the country's energy department to conclude that the coronavirus pandemic was caused by an unintentional lab leak. The Chinese government has maintained that the COVID-19 virus may have originated from a bat consumed by someone in Wuhan.

The Chinese relish exotic wild animals and the first COVID-19 was discovered in a wet market in Wuhan, China. Wuhan is also a major educational centre in China. Thousands of Chinese and international medical students study here. It also has a lab that studies the behaviour of viruses.

The lab is a state-of-the-art facility. The World Health Organization (WHO) had launched an investigation into the lab's origins. The United States has claimed that the Chinese government is impeding the investigation.

The insights provided by the Energy Department come from its network of national laboratories, some of which conduct biological research rather than more traditional forms of intelligence such as spy networks or communications intercepts.

The emergence of the pandemic heightened tensions between the United States and China, which US officials claimed was withholding information about the outbreak. It also sparked a heated and sometimes politically biased debate about its origins in the United States. China, which has limited WHO investigations, has denied that the virus could have originated in one of its labs and has suggested that it originated somewhere else.

The coronavirus killed millions of people and disrupted global supply chains and economic order. As a result of the coronavirus-caused financial woes, an economic ripple effect characterized by racing inflation is being observed throughout the world, including India.