The findings of a Department of Energy assessment on the origins of COVID-19 are contested by many agencies.

With low confidence, the Energy Department’s confidential intelligence report asserts that the virus likely escaped from a lab in China; this notion was proposed in the early days of the pandemic. How the government arrived at this determination is unknown to the public, but it is purportedly based on new evidence.

The Wall Street Journal originally reported the story.

In the meantime, a World Health Organization study is proceeding, but the organization has stated that it will become increasingly difficult to establish the specific origin of the virus as time passes and obstacles arise in completing research in China.

Jake Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, told CNN that the Department of Energy’s findings regarding the origins of COVID provides “no definite answer.”

“There are several perspectives within the intelligence community. Certain components of the intelligence community have reached one conclusion, while others have reached the opposite conclusion. A few of them have just stated that they lack sufficient knowledge to be certain, “he said.

The spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, Mao Ning, has categorically denied the charges, stating, “The origins of SARS-CoV-2 are scientific and should not be politicized.”

Ning continued, “Specific parties should cease rehashing the ‘lab leak’ story, stop maligning China, and stop politicizing origins tracing.”

In 2021, the FBI reached a similar decision, but the CIA is one of the U.S. intelligence agencies that has yet to reach a conclusion.