FBI director Christopher Wray.Credit:AP
His comments follow aWall Street Journal report on Sunday that the US Energy Department had assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China.
Four other agencies,along with a national intelligence panel,still judge that the pandemic was probably the result of natural transmission,and two are undecided,theJournal reported.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Monday the US government had not reached a definitive conclusion and consensus on the pandemic’s origins.
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China’s Foreign Ministry,asked to comment on theWall Street Journal report,which was confirmed by other US media,referred to a World Health Organisation-China report that pointed towards a natural origin for the pandemic,rather than a lab leak.
Wray said he could not share many details of the agency’s assessment because they were classified.
He accused the Chinese government of “doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate” efforts by the United States and others to learn more about the pandemic’s origins.