Dr Ashish Jha, who served as White House COVID-19 response coordinator under President Joe Biden from April 2022, has said that the most likely origin of the pandemic was a laboratory leak in Wuhan.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union on August 2 with Dana Bash, Jha stated: “This is going to surprise some people”.
“When I went into the White House, my view was this was almost surely a natural outbreak, maybe a lab leak. 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… my best assessment is that it probably was a lab leak.”
He emphasised that no one outside China can know with certainty and called for greater transparency and accountability from Chinese officials.
In a subsequent post on X, Jha clarified that he regards the leak as accidental rather than engineered or deliberate, adding that reasonable people can examine the same evidence and reach different conclusions.
He noted that his assessment formed during his time in the White House.
On @CNNSOTU with @DanaBashCNN this morning. I said three things:
1. Political leaders are accountable for public health decisions, not the scientists who advise them
2. The vaccine-autism question has been studied for 25 years. The answer hasn't changed: there is no link
3.… pic.twitter.com/HJaDOLuPRW
— Ashish K. Jha (@ashishkjha) August 2, 2026
Jha, a physician and former dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, replaced Jeffrey Zients as COVID response coordinator and left the post in mid-2023.
His public shift comes amid continuing debate over the virus’s origins.
A July 2026 final report by the US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic concluded that SARS-CoV-2 most likely emerged from a laboratory or research-related accident, and found no quantitative scientific basis for measures including two-metre distancing, mask mandates or lockdowns.
US intelligence assessments have varied in confidence levels, with several agencies regarding a lab-related incident as plausible or more likely while stressing the absence of definitive proof.
Chinese authorities have consistently rejected the laboratory hypothesis and maintained that the virus originated naturally.
At the time, major media outlets and mainstream political figures routinely dismissed the laboratory-leak hypothesis as a “debunked” conspiracy theory or far-right talking point.
It led to social-media platforms enabling unprecedented levels of mass censorship, automatically restricting related posts and public officials warning against “misinformation,” even as early intelligence assessments and scientific papers left the question open.
jon stewart on the wuhan lab leak will forever be one of the best late night moments ever pic.twitter.com/iXRl25fRQO
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) June 21, 2024
