The top US spy agency said for the first time on Thursday (Apr 30) that the American intelligence community believes the COVID-19 virus that originated in China was not man-made or genetically modified.
"The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified," the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a statement.
"The (Intelligence Community) 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," it added.
The ODNI statement appeared to sharply contradict conspiracy theories floated by anti-China activists and some supporters of US President Donald Trump suggesting that the coronavirus had been developed by Chinese scientists in a government biological weapons laboratory from which it then escaped