FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that a lab accident in Wuhan, China is “very likely” to be the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, two days after a similar hypothesis put forward by the US Department of Health. Energy.
“The FBI has believed for some time now that the origin of the pandemic is most likely (related to) a lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray said in an interview with Fox News.
New intelligence had tipped the department’s analysis on the side of the leak hypothesis, according to unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and CNN.
The newspapers insist, however, that this new analysis is published “with a low level of confidence” by the ministry, which oversees biology laboratories.
The US intelligence world is now even more divided, with some believing that Covid arose through natural transmission.
In this interview, Christopher Wray also accused China of trying to block the investigation led by the United States into the causes of the pandemic which arose in early 2020, killing nearly 7 million people and shaking up the progress of the world. During months.
Beijing vigorously disputes these claims.
For the scientific community, it is crucial to determine the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to better prevent and combat a next epidemic wave.
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US department believes Covid-19 originated from lab leak in China