lab in chiwuhan, china. and in east palestine, the new technique to track contaminated water from that city. and the growing concern to other cities taking in truckloads of contaminated soil. and an image in oklahoma, cnn is on the scene. welcome to the lead i m jake tapper. we start with the groundbreaking assertion with the u.s. energy department that the covid-19 pandemic likely began from a lab leak in wuhan, china. this all comes after the energy department updated its 2021 report with this claim, saying it made the new conclusion, based on new evidence coming to light. two sources telling cnn the department is issuing the report with, quote, low confidence. that s a term that doesn t mean that they don t believe their own conclusion. it means that the evidence as of now is only circumstantial. the new assertion reveals that the u.s. intelligence community is more divided than ever on how the pandemic began. four other agencies in the u.s. government said the outbr
is more divided than ever on how the pandemic began. four other agencies in the u.s. government said the outbreak began after the virus naturally jumped from animals to humans. on the other hand, the fbi agrees with the energy department conclusion that it was a lab leak. and the fbi confidence level in their conclusions is moderate. national security adviser jake sullivan weighed in with cnn s dana bash. some elements of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other. a number of them have said they just don t have enough information to be sure. right now, there is not a definitive answer that has emerged from the intelligence community on this question. this update comes more than three years after the start of the pandemic, at this point, almost three years ago next week, we were all watching the grand princess cruise ship slowly making its way to oakland, california, with more than 100 confirmed cases of individuals with covid on board. and n