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COVID origin remains inconclusive, ODNI report says

Aug. 27, 2021 07:57PM EST
 Dan Ackermann

COVID's origin remains inconclusive, according to an unclassified Office of Director of National Intelligence report publicly released Friday.

Driving the news: “[T]he IC remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19."

What they're saying: COVID was "probably" not developed as a biological weapon or genetically engineered, but the two dominant theories — that it came from a lab leak or was naturally transmitted from an animal — remain plausible, according to the report.

  • Chinese government officials did not know of the virus before its initial outbreak, the report said.
  • "The IC judges they will be unable to provide a more definitive explanation ... unless new information allows them to determine the specific pathway for initial natural contact with an animal or to determine that a laboratory in Wuhan was handling SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor virus before COVID-19 emerged."

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