The White House commented on the lack of consensus within the Biden administration over the origin of Covid-19, a day after the Energy Department revealed it had joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in holding the virus likely spread via a lab leak in China. National Security Council spokesman John Toppin stated that the four other agencies that some believe the pandemic started with an animal-to-human transmission had not reached a consensus.

G20 finance leaders attempted to come to a consensus at a recent summit in India, but their efforts were spoiled by China's refusal to harshly criticize Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Energy Department joined the FBI in their theory that the virus originally leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. To back their assertions, they cite the natural jump of viruses from animals to humans; the genetics of the virus versus those of other known infections; and the fact that the Chinese government destroyed evidence