Another Turn in the Covid Lab-Leak Story

More evidence that those who derided the possibility of a man-made Chinese origin were wrong.

Journal Editorial Report: Paul Gigot interviews Supreme Court specialist Ilya Shapiro. Images: AFP/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly

The Journal scoop Sunday that the U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that the Covid-19 virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, doesn’t mean the case is definitive. But it is more evidence that the media and public-health groupthink about Covid was mistaken and destructive.

The salient detail is that DOE’s judgment is based on “new” but still secret intelligence. Yet DOE’s new judgment is nonetheless made with “low confidence.” The FBI has concluded that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the “likely” origin of the virus, but other U.S. intelligence agencies either don’t believe they have enough evidence or believe it had a natural origin.

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