Federal Intel Boss Confirms Investigation Is Underway Into Whether COVID-19 Outbreak Was ‘Result of an Accident’ in Wuhan, China Lab | Eastern NC Now

Publisher's note: This post appears here courtesy of the LifeZette, and written by Polizette Staff.

    The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has just confirmed for the first time that an investigation is underway by the U.S. Intelligence Committee as to whether the coronavirus outbreak that has killed hundreds of thousands of people all over the globe started because of an accident at a lab in Wuhan, China.

    "The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to U.S. policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China. The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified," the office of acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell said in a statement provided to Fox News.

    "As we do in all crises, the Community's experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security," the statement continued. "The IC 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."

    This comes after it was reported that the outbreak likely escaped the lab not as a bioweapon, but as an attempt by the Chinese to show that they were better at identifying viruses than their American counterparts. Sources have said that U.S. intelligence has been probing for information about the lab and the initial outbreak as they go about "creating an accurate picture of what happened."

    Once the investigation ends, the findings will be presented to President Donald Trump and his administration. Senior intelligence officials said that while the investigation will probably be concluded in the near term, it could be days, weeks, or even months before completion.

    U.S. officials have also confirmed that they are certain the virus was not manmade or engineered by China as a bioweapon, explaining that the structure of the virus shows that it was not genetically altered. Instead, it is believed that the initial transmission of the virus was a naturally occurring strain that was being studied in the lab and then somehow escaped, moving into the population of Wuhan.

    Trump hinted that an investigation was already underway earlier this month when he said, "More and more we're hearing the story...we are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation."