Scientists at the the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, near Berkeley, analyzed the genetic makeup of the virus to try to understand how it evolved.

They passed their May 27, 2020 findings on to the State Department in October. The five-month delay was not explained.

On January 15 the State Department published a fact sheet about COVID-19, which said that ‚circumstantial‘ evidence suggested a lab leak theory was possible.

The secret document the California lab produced was not known about until Monday, when The Wall Street Journal reported on its existence.