The US intelligence community on Thursday acknowledged its agencies had two theories on where COVID-19 originated, with two agencies believing it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals and a third embracing a possible laboratory accident as the source of the global pandemic.
A statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) describes an intelligence community split over competing theories for the origin of virus.
"The US Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said, adding that the majority believes there is not "sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other."
"While two elements of the IC lean toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter - each with low or moderate confidence - the majority of elements within the IC do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other," Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Strategic Communications Amanda Schoch said in a statement, referring to the FBI, Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
A statement from President Biden on Wednesday ordered the intelligence community to redouble its efforts to ascertain the origins of the virus and "report back to me in 90 days."
"As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China," Biden said in a statement.
Post President Biden's statement China's U.S. embassy said politicising the origins of COVID-19 would hamper further investigations and undermine global efforts to curb the pandemic.The embassy said on Thursday that "some political forces have been fixated on political manipulation and (the) blame game."
( With inputs from ANI )
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