The British government considers a lab leak in Wuhan, China, to be the most likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Telegraph reported Tuesday.
Chemical weapons expert and retired British Army colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon told the Telegraph that "behind closed doors most people [in the U.K. government] think it's a lab leak" that caused the pandemic.
"The zoonotic transfer theory just didn't make sense," de Bretton-Gordon said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's actions seems to bear out de Bretton-Gordon's claims.
Johnson on Monday told the House of Commons that he would change U.K. biosecurity policy to better protect against lab leaks. The changed policy will deal with "accidental release" from laboratories and "dual-use research of concern."
A Harvard and MIT gene therapy specialist told the House of Commons in December that a lab leak is the most likely origin of COVID.
"I think the lab origin is more likely than not," Dr. Alina Chan testified. "We have heard from many top virologists that a genetically engineered origin is reasonable."
Mainstream media sources, and some scientists, for a year mocked the theory that the COVID-19 virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. CNN host Jake Tapper, for example, in 2020 called a lab leak a "conspiracy theory" peddled by Republicans, while MSNBC host Joy Reid blasted then-president Donald Trump for advocating the theory, which she called "debunked bunkum."
Chan admitted in June that many scientists dismissed the theory not for scientific reasons but rather for fear of being "associated with Trump."