During a meeting among the Five Eyes intelligence alliance in January 2021, the United States shared compelling evidence with the United Kingdom suggesting a high probability of the Covid-19 virus leaking from a lab in Wuhan, China. Despite this revelation and documentation of Chinese military involvement in virology research, the UK government, reportedly influenced by public tensions and political considerations, downplayed the significance of the lab leak theory as presented by the US administration.

The United States provided "astonishing" evidence to the United Kingdom at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting a "high likelihood" that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory. This was revealed by "The Telegraph", according to which a meeting of the intelligence alliance known as the Five Eyes group (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia) took place in January 2021, discussing the issue. Specifically, the United States reported that China had concealed military and coronavirus research activities in a lab in Wuhan. According to "The Telegraph", however, in a previous phone call, then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented evidence supporting this theory to former British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab and his counterparts in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Two sources from the former presidential administration led by Donald Trump - when he was in power in the US - spoke to "The Telegraph" and accused Raab and the British government of ignoring the lab leak theory due to reluctance expressed by the government health team that, at that time, strongly advocated for a natural evolution of the virus.

"We saw more information and believed they were, sincerely, astonishing," said a former official who worked with the intelligence services and former Secretary Pompeo. "Clearly, there was a high likelihood that it was actually a virus that escaped from a lab," said the source, who said a State Department document indicated "consistent obstruction" from China after the virus was discovered and accused Beijing officials of "serious corruption and incompetence." Research also showed for the first time that Chinese military officers had worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the years before the pandemic and that some lab researchers fell ill shortly before the first cases of Covid infection were recorded in Wuhan. The two former US officials explained that at that time the UK ignored the evidence presented by the US, as the London government labeled information about the potential lab leak as "a radioactive US political issue" fueled by public disagreement between government scientists and Donald Trump.