U.S. intelligence acknowledges 2 theories of Covid origin

The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. January 29, 2020. Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM/CDC/Handout via REUTERS

WASHINGTON – The U.S. intelligence community on Thursday acknowledged its agencies had two theories on where COVID-19 originated, with two elements 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.

“The U.S. 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 said, adding that the majority believes there is not “sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.”