Coronavirus is NOT Manmade or Genetically Modified, US Intelligence Community concludes
Nickie Louise
Posted On April 30, 2020
Contrary to many online rumors, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the head of the U.S. intelligence community (IC), said coronavirus is Not manmade or genetically modified. However, the IC also said they “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.”
In a press release titled, “Intelligence Community Statement on Origins of COVID-19,” the IC said: “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 Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.”
“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,” a statement from the office of acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said.
Coronavirus originated in China in December 2019 before spreading around the world, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. The area where it emerged is near the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a high-level laboratory where scientists were studying how coronaviruses leap from animals to humans.
Yuan Zhiming, director of the National Biosafety Laboratory at the lab, told Reuters in a statement that the lab didn’t have the capacity to design a new coronavirus and that no information within the CCP virus genome indicates it was manmade. He also said the lab didn’t accidentally release a virus it harvested from bats for research.
