A US intelligence assessment from the Department of Energy's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence has reignited the debate over Covid-19's origins. The new assessment endorses the "lab leak theory" - the minority view that the virus occurred as a result of work in a Chinese lab - and has sparked responses from members of Congress who have pushed for an investigation into the origins.

Recent polling suggests that a majority of Americans believe the Chinese government had something to do with the virus, with 52% believing a lab leak was responsible. This has prompted Republicans in the House majority to form a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee specifically to probe China’s role in the early spread of the virus and US government dollars that were used to finance research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Scientists are still mainly inclined to believe the virus occurred naturally in animals and spread to humans in an outbreak at a market in Wuh