A SECRET report by US government scientists allegedly said that the theory that Covid-19 leaked from a Wuhan lab is "plausible" last May.
The study was reportedly prepared by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in the spring of 2020, shortly after the first wave of the pandemic shut the US down.
The State Department also reportedly looked into the report in the final months of Donald Trump's administration as it conducted an inquiry into the pandemic's origins, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been gaining momentum in recent weeks after it was revealed that several workers at the lab became ill with Covid-like symptoms in November of 2019.
Even Dr Anthony Fauci, who adamantly denied that lab leak possibility last year, has said that he's no longer convinced that Covid-19 developed naturally.
President Joe Biden has now ordered US intelligence agencies to come to him within weeks with a report on how the virus emerged.
People familiar with the Lawrence Livermore study said that the top-secret report looked into a genomic analysis of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.
By analyzing the genetic makeup of viruses, scientists can better understand how they evolve and spread to humans.
The report is thought to be the first of the government's efforts to seriously look into the lab leak possibility.
Despite several prominent scientists coming forward and saying a more thorough investigation into the lab leak theory is needed, the general consensus in the scientific community is that the virus developed naturally.
Still, Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Axios on Sunday that China has not given the US the "transparency" needed to make a clear determination of how the virus developed.
"The most important reason we have to get to the bottom of this is that's the only way we're going to be able to prevent the next pandemic or at least do a better job in mitigating it," he said.
Blinken said that transparency "has to happen."
The White House has accused China of obstructing investigations into the origin of Covid, a claim that China's government denies.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology also denied that the virus could have leaked from its lab and said none of it's employees tested positive for Covid, according to the Journal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) sent a team to the Wuhan lab earlier this year, but investigators were only allowed in for a few hours and were not granted access to all the documentation they needed to see.
The visit was deemed "inconclusive" by the WHO.
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