British intelligence sources have reportedly said that it's 'feasible' that the pandemic started with a leak from a research lab in China.
The possibility of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology is being investigated by agents, with US diplomats saying 'we are one wet market or bio lab away from the next spillover'.
According to The Times, the development is being denied by Beijing, but officials are saying that co-operation is important.
MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, told the publication: "The silence coming from Wuhan is troubling.
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"We need to open the crypt and see what happened to be able to protect ourselves in the future.
"That means starting an investigation, along with partners around the world and in the WHO."
Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi said that the importance of the investigation is paramount.
Zahawi told Sky News: "I think it's really important that the WHO is allowed to conduct its investigation unencumbered into the origins of this pandemic and we should leave no stone unturned to understand why."
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The controversial idea that it was leaked from a lab was propagated by Donald Trump early on in the pandemic, but was largely dismissed as a conspiracy theory.
But the idea has begun to circulate more in recent weeks, with US media reporting that some scientists who previously showed scepticism towards the theory of a leak, have said they are open-minded about the possibility.
On 11 May, Anthony Fauci, President Biden's chief medical adviser, told the US senate committee: "That possibility certainly exists, and I am totally in favour of a full investigation of whether that could have happened."
President Biden also said that he asked for a report about how virus became so prevalent, wanting to determine 'whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident'.
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But, it's important to point out that the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that it's 'very unlikely' that the virus began in a lab.
Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the WHO, said that a visit to the lab in question - which is located a few kilometres away from the Wuhan wet market where the first cluster of cases was found - was safe.
Dr Embarek said the lab theory was 'not in the hypotheses that we will suggest for future studies'.
Nevertheless, Donald Trump is taking credit. In an email to the New York Post on Tuesday, he wrote: "To me it was obvious from the beginning but I was badly criticised, as usual.
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"Now they are all saying: 'He was right'."
Featured Image Credit: PA