US intelligence can’t agree if Covid-19 came from an animal or a lab

An image showing the Wuhan Institute of Virology

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After months of investigation agencies remain divided on most likely origin of Sars-CoV-2

A much-anticipated investigation into the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19 by US intelligence agencies, launched by President Biden in late May, has failed to reach any firm conclusions. While the US intelligence community agrees that Sars-CoV-2 wasn’t developed as a biological weapon, they remain divided on its origins. ‘All agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident,’ concluded the new report, an unclassified version of which was released on 27 August.