No Definitive Conclusion On Covid Origin: White House After US Dept Report On Lab Leak Theory

The US Energy Department in a classified intelligence report recently presented to White House and key members of Congress concluded that Covid pandemic most likely resulted from a laboratory leak. 

The White House on Monday said that there was no definitive conclusion on the origin of Covid-19, a day after the US Department of Energy claimed that a lab leak was the probable cause of Covid-19 pandemic, reported news agency PTI. 

"The intelligence community and the rest of the government is still looking at this. There's not been a definitive conclusion, so it's difficult for me to say, nor should I feel like I should have to defend press reporting about a possible preliminary indication here," National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters at a daily White House news conference.

"What the President wants is facts. He wants the whole government designed to go get those facts, and that's what we're doing. And we're just not there yet. And when we're there yet and if we have something that is ready to be briefed to the American people and the Congress, then we're going to do that," he said.

Kirby said that trying to find the origins of Covid was made a priority right by President Joe Biden after he came to the office, adding he has got a whole-of-government effort designed to do that. 

"There is not a consensus right now in the US government about exactly how COVID started. There is just not an intelligence community consensus," he said. "The President believes it's really important that we continue that work and that we find out, as best we can, how it started so that we can better prevent a future pandemic. The idea here is to get ahead of it so that should there be another one or should there even be the signs of another one, we can better get ahead of it," he said.

The US Energy Department in a classified intelligence report recently presented to the White House and key members of Congress concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely resulted from a laboratory leak. 

In a shift from its stance, the Energy Department, which was previously not clear on the emergence of the virus, noted in an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office, reported publication The Wall Street Journal.