Ashish Jha, former COVID response coordinator, stated in a Sunday interview on CNN that he now believes COVID-19 was likely caused by a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, marking a reversal from his earlier views.

During the interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Jha confirmed his agreement with a retweeted post by commentator Jamie Metzl, which asserted the lab leak origin theory. Jha said, "I pretty much agree with everything here," and added, "Based on information I learned and based on information I‘ve seen, I have come to conclude that it is more likely to have been a lab leak."

Reflecting on his initial stance upon joining the Biden administration, Jha remarked, "This is going to surprise some people. You know, when I went into the White House, my view was, ‘This was almost surely a natural outbreak, maybe a lab leak.’"

The lab leak theory was widely disputed early in the pandemic, with many news organizations, including CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, dismissing it as a "debunked" conspiracy theory before later reconsidering. Watchdogs have suggested that this early dismissal harmed media credibility.

Separately, the Biden administration faced a high-profile First Amendment lawsuit after it was accused of pressuring social media companies to censor Americans questioning official COVID-19 narratives.

Jha emphasized the ongoing nature of understanding the pandemic, stating, "And shows that we‘re just, we‘re still learning, which is really important."

Sources