The Department of Energy believes COVID-19 originated from a Chinese lab.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday the Department of Energy updated a 2021 document from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines's office to conclude with low confidence that the virus emerged from one of several laboratories in Wuhan, China.
The Department of Energy was previously undecided on the origins of the virus, according to the Wall Street Journal report.
The department became involved in the effort to determine the origin of the virus in 2021 when President Joe Biden asked intelligence officials to investigate the virus's origins using work from the Department of Energy's national laboratories.
The Department of Energy maintains a network of 17 national labs including the Savannah River National Laboratory.
Biden's request resulted in an October 2021 report that concluded the virus was not a Chinese biological weapon but left open the question of how the virus originated by saying more information was needed from the Chinese.
The two main theories of the virus's origin are lab-leak and natural origin, which is also known as zoonotic transmission.
The 18 U.S. intelligence agencies are divided between the two theories. The Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded – with moderate confidence – in 2021 that the virus originated from a lab. The National Intelligence Council concluded with low confidence that the virus has a natural origin.
