Intel Agencies Split over COVID-19 Origin, in Long-Awaited Report

A newly declassified U.S. intel report on the origins of the novel coronavirus reveals that one intelligence agency has assessed with moderate confidence that the virus emerged from a lab-leak, while four others assessed with low confidence that COVID-19 originated from natural exposure to an infected animal.

The report says that the intelligence community “remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19” and that “all agencies assess that two hypotheses are plausible: natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident.”