WH cagey on Energy COVID-19 conclusion

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration insisted Monday there remains no “consensus” about whether COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab, despite a new Energy Department assessment that it likely did — while defending gain-of-function research, which critics say may have caused the pandemic.

Press secretary Karine JeanPierre and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby pointedly refused to confirm reports that the Energy Department had updated its stance to say COVID-19 likely came from a lab leak.

“I’m not at liberty to confirm the reporting,” Jean-Pierre told NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell, who asked if there had been new evidence found by the Energy Department’s National Laboratories.

“What I can tell you is, again, there’s been no consensus on this — where COVID originated — so I’ll just leave it there and not try to get ahead of the current process,” JeanPierre said.

RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann asked Kirby for the current Biden administration stance on “gain-offunction” research, which makes viruses more dangerous and transmissible for research purposes — as was done with US funding at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China before the devastating pandemic began nearby.

“Does the president believe that this type of gain-of-function research is prudent?” Wegmann asked.

“He believes that it’s important to help prevent future pandemics, which means he understands there has to be legitimate scientific research into the sources or potential sources of pandemics so that we understand it so that we can prevent them,” Kirby said, adding, “But he also believes . . . that research . . . must be done in a safe and secure manner.”