Under the title "Origin of COVID-19: US Intelligence Returns to Original Hypothesis," Sky News Arabia reported that senior US intelligence officials stated that "they have not ruled out the possibility of a lab accident to explain the emergence of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China." US National Security Advisor Avril Haines told the Senate, "Intelligence agencies do not know where the virus originally came from and when and how it happened."
The official mentioned "two hypotheses" explaining the origin of the coronavirus: the first is based on human contact with infected animals, or a lab accident. She added, "We continue to work on this issue, gather information, and do our best to provide as many reliable explanations as possible" regarding the pandemic's source.
CIA Director William Burns stated, "We are doing everything we can and utilizing all available resources to shed light on what happened." He added, "However, it is clear to us and our experts that the Chinese have not exercised full candor and transparency in their cooperation" with the World Health Organization regarding the virus's origin.
Intelligence agencies are collaborating with other government agencies and universities in an attempt to identify the source of the coronavirus, according to General Paul Nakasone, director of the military intelligence agency. In a report published at the end of March, World Health Organization experts believed that the lab leak hypothesis was the least likely. However, the agency's director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for further investigation into this hypothesis days later, noting that international experts "informed him of the difficulties they faced in accessing original data" during their mission in China.
The administration of former US President Donald Trump vigorously defended the hypothesis of the coronavirus leaking from a lab in Wuhan, citing intelligence information. China has consistently denied this hypothesis.
