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The US intelligence community does not believe that the new coronavirus is created in the laboratory or genetically modified, reports CNBC. The US Intelligence Directorate said in an official statement that “American intelligence joins the broad scientific consensus that the virus that produces COVID-19 was neither produced in the laboratory by humans nor genetically modified.”
“The intelligence community joins the broad scientific consensus that the virus that produces COVID-19 was neither developed in the laboratory by humans nor genetically modified,” said the director of the US Department of Intelligence in a statement.
“The community will continue to rigorously examine the information that emerges to determine if the epidemic occurred through contact with infected animals or if it was an accident in a laboratory in Wuhan,” he added.
The statement contradicts reports suggesting that the new coronavirus was developed by Chinese researchers to be used as a biological weapon. US spies have tried to find out if the virus that caused the global pandemic accidentally “escaped” from a Chinese laboratory, but found no evidence of it.
The coronavirus has infected around 3.2 million people worldwide, and while there are a large number of cures, more than 220,000 people have died. In the United States, the most affected country, more than a million people have been infected and more than 60,000 have died.
Trump administration officials have tried to test the idea that the virus is a biological weapon
The Trump administration has lobbied US intelligence agencies to search for information on the origin of the new coronavirus and to “hunt” for evidence that the virus was created in a Chinese laboratory, The New York Times writes Thursday.
The US publication writes that “intelligence agencies remain skeptical of this hypothesis and the idea that such evidence exists” and shows that the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is one of those who have exerted so much pressure.
Members of the intelligence community are also concerned about pressure from US government officials. USA And they say they could distort assessments of the virus so it can be used as a political weapon against China.
