US authorities say the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic most likely leaked out of a Chinese research laboratory. In an about-face on previous stances, the US Energy Department said new intelligence prompted it to conclude an accidental leak from a Wuhan lab – not as part of a weapons program – probably led to the global pandemic. The Wall Street Journal reported the revelations on Sunday (US time), which it said came from an updated and classified 2021 US energy department study provided to the White House and senior American lawmakers. China’s lab leak, being proven right doesn’t matter,” tweeted Senator Tom Cotton, a long-time proponent of the theory the virus was linked to a lab in Wuhan that studies coronavirus. She has also publicly pushed the “lab leak” theory, as well as conspiracies about COVID vaccines.

Source: Wall Street Journal February 27, 2023 04:01 UTC