FBI Chief: China Lab Leak 'Most Likely' Behind COVID

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Facts

  • In the agency's first public confirmation of its classified judgment regarding the emergence of COVID, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that the bureau believes that the pandemic's 'most likely' origin was a 'Chinese government-controlled lab.'1
  • During an interview with Fox News, Wray confirmed that 'the FBI has for quite some time now' believed the virus came from 'a potential lab incident in Wuhan.' In 2021, CNN reported that the FBI had 'moderate confidence' that COVID originated in a Wuhan lab.2
  • Wray claimed that the FBI, which reportedly has specialists who focus on 'the dangers of biological threats,' had run into resistance from the Chinese government in its investigation of a possible lab leak.3
  • A 2021 report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence claimed that one 'element' of the intelligence community had 'moderate confidence,' but the overall community has been relatively divided on COVID's origins.4
  • This follows a Wall Street Journal report Sunday saying the US Energy Dept. had assessed with low confidence that the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China. Meanwhile, Beijing has denied the allegations.5
  • As investigations into COVID's origins continue, the World Health Organization’s global COVID trackers reported that, as of Feb. 21, over 757M infections had been reported, and 6.85M had died from the virus.6

Sources: 1BBC News, 2CNN, 3FOX News, 4The hill, 5Itn and 6Al Jazeera.

Narratives

  • Right narrative, as provided by Red State. This is why we should not just appeal to authority and blindly trust 'the science.' In the immediate aftermath of the outbreak, America's so-called experts were so obsessed with blaming everything on Trump that they were willing to ban any and all debate surrounding the origin of COVID. Finally, three years later, even the FBI and DOE have endorsed a theory they once labeled 'misinformation' and 'racist.'
  • Left narrative, as provided by Axios. Though conspiratorial lawmakers will jump on this story as a 'gotcha' moment to win political points, there's still no new evidence showing where exactly COVID came from. With some intelligence agencies arguing the lab leak theory and others arguing an animal spillover from a 'wet market,' no conclusion has yet been drawn with any high level of confidence, and anyone claiming to know the answer is simply trying to rile up their echo chamber audience.