Former Biden COVID Czar Says Pandemic ‘Probably Was A Lab Leak’

Dr. Ashish Jha, who served as former President Joe Biden’s White House COVID-19 response coordinator, now says he believes the pandemic most likely began with an accidental laboratory leak, marking a major shift from the position he held when he entered the administration.

Jha said that when he joined the White House in April 2022, he believed COVID-19 was “almost surely” the result of a natural outbreak, while considering a laboratory accident less likely. But information he reviewed during and after his government service ultimately changed his assessment.

“Based on information I learned and based on information I have seen, I have come to conclude that it is more likely to have been a lab leak,” Jha said during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He stressed that his conclusion remains an assessment rather than definitive proof.

Jha later clarified that he believes any laboratory leak was accidental rather than an intentional release. He also rejected the suggestion that the virus was necessarily engineered, saying the circumstantial evidence he has reviewed simply makes a laboratory accident more likely in his judgment.

The comments are particularly notable because Jha reached his conclusion after serving inside the Biden administration and gaining access to information he did not have beforehand. He said Chinese officials remain the only people who may know with certainty what happened and called for greater transparency and accountability from Beijing.

Jha’s assessment adds another prominent former government health official to those leaning toward a laboratory origin. The CIA previously concluded with “low confidence” that a research-related origin was more likely, while the FBI and Department of Energy have also favored versions of the lab-leak explanation. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has remained at the center of scrutiny because of its extensive research involving bat coronaviruses.

The origins of COVID-19 remain disputed, and some scientists continue to favor a natural spillover from animals. But Jha’s reversal is significant given his former position overseeing the Biden White House’s pandemic response, adding another high-profile voice to a theory that was fiercely contested during the earliest years of the pandemic.