The Energy Department has concluded with "low confidence" that the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from an unintentional laboratory leak in China, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Drawing from classified intelligence reports provided to the White House and members of Congress, the two theories on the origins of the pandemic were put to the test -- that COVID-19 jumped from animals to humans at a market in Wuhan, China , and that it was leaked from a laboratory studying coronaviruses.

The investigation revealed both sides of the story, but has yet to find enough evidence to directly support either theory. Despite this, the Energy Department changed its stance given new intelligence, but the conclusion remains only "low confidence."

The Chinese government's handling of the wet market, which was cleaned up and evidence destroyed before any examination, is raising more speculation of the existence