Dr. @ashishkjha, former White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator, says he now believes the origin of the coronavirus pandemic was likely the Wuhan labs.

“This is going to surprise some people. When I went into the White House, my view was this was almost surely a natural…

— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 2, 2026

Jha made the comments recently and described how his thinking has shifted. “This is going to surprise some people,” he said. “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’ve learned and based on information I’ve seen, I have come to conclude it is more likely to have been a lab leak … We still need transparency and accountability on this.”

Jha was very wary of the limits of what is known. He said that no one in the United States could know for sure, and that the only people who do know for sure are the officials in China who have been less than forthcoming with the information. Transparency and accountability remain necessary, he repeated.

The comments emerge as details from Anthony Fauci’s personal diary have drawn attention. Those private writings, released by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), include an entry from as early as January 26, 2020, in which Fauci recorded that the virus almost certainly did not come from a wet market — a theory floated early on in the pandemic. The diary shows Fauci privately treated a laboratory connection as the more plausible explanation, despite his public insistence on a natural origin.

Jha presented his conclusion as his current best judgment after reviewing the information available to him. He did not claim final proof. The gap between early public emphasis on a natural spillover and the private assessments now coming to light keeps attention on how the origins question was handled even from the very beginning.

Both Jha’s comments and the diary entries underline the same basic problem: without fuller access to data and records from the relevant laboratories and early outbreak sites in Wuhan definitive answers stay incomplete.

The diary entries from Fauci show that private doubts about the wet market explanation existed at high levels from the first weeks of 2020. Jha has now put a similar assessment on the public record years later. Full answers still depend on greater transparency from the relevant officials in China.

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DW Opinion

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The incident isn't a shock to anyone who lives here.

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