Report: US-Commissioned Study Found Coronavirus Could Have Leaked From Chinese Lab

The Wall Street Journal says a report issued by a U.S. government laboratory last year concluded that a theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated due to a leak from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan is plausible and deserved further investigation.

The classified report, prepared in May 2020 by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, was used by the U.S. State Department when it conducted an inquiry into the pandemic’s origins during the final months of the Trump administration. The Journal said Lawrence Livermore has considerable expertise on biological issues, and drew its assessment on genomic analysis of the version of the SARS virus which causes COVID-19. U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered the national intelligence community to investigate the origins of the virus.  Intelligence agencies are considering whether COVID-19 was triggered by a laboratory accident or emerged from human contact with an infected animal.