Former Biden White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr.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.BILL MAHER BREAKS WITH THE LEFT TO HAMMER ANTHONY FAUCI AFTER EXPLOSIVE SENATE HEARINGWhite House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr.
Ashish Jha speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 26, 2022.((AP Photo/Susan Walsh))"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,’" he said."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.""Here‘s the bottom line.
No one in the United States knows for sure.The only people who know for sure are people — officials in China — and we still need transparency and accountability on that.
So that is my best assessment.I‘m not suggesting I know for sure, but I‘m saying my best assessment is that it probably was a lab leak," he said."That is definitely news to hear that from you for sure," Bash replied.
"And shows that we‘re just, we‘re still learning, which is really important."Jha later posted a clip of his conversation with Bash to his X account, with the following message:"M...