After years of debate, former COVID response coordinator acknowledges pandemic source 'probably a lab leak'

Ashish Jha revealed in a Sunday interview on CNN that he believes COVID-19 was likely caused by a lab leak.

During the interview with CNN's Dana Bash, she highlighted how Jha had retweeted commentator Jamie Metzl’s lengthy social media post saying he believed COVID-19 originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

While the lab leak theory was widely disputed early in the pandemic and some social media platforms restricted certain related claims under their COVID-19 misinformation policies, Jha responded by declaring in 2026, "I pretty much agree with everything here."

After Bash highlighted the tweet, he confirmed he agreed with it — marking a change from the initial beliefs he held upon when first entering the Biden administration.

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