The U.S. Intelligence Community is investigating the origins of the coronavirus, according to a statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
“The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to U.S. policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China,” the statement read.
The statement also said that U.S. intelligence agencies agree with “wide scientific consensus” that the coronavirus was not “manmade or genetically modified.”
The statement continued:
“As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security. The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
Read the statement below:
Intelligence Community Statement on Origins of COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/MIPr6LVzU4
— Office of the DNI (@ODNIgov) April 30, 2020
The statement from the ODNI comes hours after The New York Times reported that members of President Donald Trump’s administration were exerting pressure on intelligence agencies to find evidence that the virus originated in a lab in China.
The origins of the coronavirus are still not definitively known. Scientists believe that the virus originated in bats and jumped from bats to humans at a wet market in Wuhan, China.
Meanwhile, others have theorized that the virus was made in a lab in Wuhan as a bioweapon. However, many scientists have dismissed that theory.
Still, other reports said officials believe that the virus may have leaked from a virology lab in Wuhan. As Fox News reported, sources believe that China created the virus to prove to the world that it was as good or better at tracking fighting viruses as the U.S.
However, as the U.S. intelligence agencies stated, the virus was not “manmade or genetically modified.”