Biosecurity

U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES HAVEN'T AGREED ON ANY ONE THEORY ABOUT HOW CORONAVIRUS ORIGINATED

America's intelligence agencies have not come to a conclusion on how the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 began spreading from China's Wuhan province, a U.S. Intelligence Community official told Newsweek on Friday.

Earlier this week, Fox News reported that U.S. intelligence agencies were conducting an investigation into whether the virus which causes COVID-19 was inadvertently released from a Wuhan-based virology lab, and had concluded with "high confidence" that the virus was accidentally spread by an intern who'd been infected because of lax safety protocols.

When asked about the report during Wednesday's White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing, President Trump wouldn't say whether he knew the Fox report to be accurate, but added that the story was something he was hearing "more and more" and that his administration was "doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation that happened."

But an Intelligence Community official reached by Newsweek said that no such conclusion has been reached at this time.

"The IC has not collectively agreed on any one theory," said the official, who added that the agencies which make up the U.S. intelligence community are "actively and vigorously tracking down every piece of information we get on this topic" and "writing frequently to update policymakers."