Overview
- Dr. Ashish Jha said he now judges a lab leak from Wuhan as the most likely origin of the pandemic based on circumstantial evidence he has reviewed.
- Jha clarified he believes any lab release would have been accidental and that no U.S. official can say for sure without access to Chinese records.
- Private diary entries from Dr. Anthony Fauci, released publicly by a senator, show he privately doubted the early wet-market explanation in January 2020.
- U.S. agencies including the CIA, FBI and the Energy Department have issued assessments that leaned toward a lab origin with varying confidence and cited reports of possible illnesses among Wuhan lab researchers in late 2019.
- The shift in prominent public statements increases calls for full access to Wuhan lab data and could intensify political and scientific review while the origin question remains unresolved.