National security adviser: No ‘definitive answer’ on COVID lab leak

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday responded to a new Wall Street Journal report that found the Department of Energy has concluded the COVID-19 pandemic most likely developed from a lab leak, saying there’s “no definitive answer” on the question. 

“Here’s what I can tell you. President Biden has directed, repeatedly, every element of our intelligence community to put effort and resources behind getting to the bottom of this question,” Sullivan said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“If we gain any further insight or information, we will share it with Congress, and we will share it with the American people. But right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question,” the national security adviser said. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Energy Department, armed with “new intelligence,” now thinks the virus emerged from a laboratory mishap in China, joining the FBI in that conclusion, while other agencies think the pandemic was the result of natural transmission. According to the report, the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence.”

Sullivan said Sunday there are a “variety of views” on the question of COVID-19 origins within the intelligence community, and stressed that some “just don’t have enough information to be sure.”

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