China has dismissed media reports of findings by the US Department of Energy that the coronavirus may have originated from a lab glitch.

Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told the press on Monday that the search for the origin of the virus is a scientific matter and should "not be politicized".

The research mission of the World Health Organization (WHO) with Chinese scientists determined that a laboratory breakdown was "highly unlikely" during their investigations in 2021 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first discovered. The spokeswoman said it should stop exaggerating the laboratory theory and slandering China.

Secret report also available to White House

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the US Department of Energy has changed its assessment of the origin of the corona virus and is now assuming a possible laboratory failure - but only with a "low" degree of certainty. The secret report was presented to the White House and members of Congress. The Department of Energy thus agrees with the assessment of the Federal Police FBI.

However, some US authorities still believe that the virus was probably transmitted naturally. Others are undecided. In 2021, after several months of scrutiny, there was no agreement among the US intelligence services. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health said about the report: "We still have no own knowledge that supports this laboratory hypothesis at the moment."