The intelligence agencies of the United States currently have two theories about the origins of the novel coronavirus according to the admission of the US intelligence community on Thursday.
There are two intelligence agencies who believe in the natural origin theory of the virus – according to which it is believed that the virus emerged naturally and it jumped onto humans through contact with infected animals. The third agency is a believer in possible laboratory accident as the source of the virus – believing that it accidentally escaped a virology laboratory in China and then spread throughout the world.
"The U.S. Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said. The majority in the intelligence community in the US is of the opinion that there is not "sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other," it added.
The statement from the ODNI however did not specify which two of the 17 agencies constituting the US intelligence community is a believer of the theory of the virus originating from infected animals and which agency believed it was a result of an accidental spread from a laboratory.
However the ODNI said in both the cases the agencies that believe in one theory of origin or the other did so with "low or moderate confidence" – which is a jargon used in the spy world which means that they believe that the evidence that supports their belief is far from being conclusive.
Neither the CIA nor the Defense Intelligence Agency currently support either of the alternative explanations for the origin of the novel coronavirus, said a report quoting sources familiar with intelligence community analysis. The two intelligence agencies named above were among the large majority of agencies in the United States that believe that the information is currently available with them is not enough to determine that one scenario was more likely than the other.
(Source:www.channelnewsasia.com)
There are two intelligence agencies who believe in the natural origin theory of the virus – according to which it is believed that the virus emerged naturally and it jumped onto humans through contact with infected animals. The third agency is a believer in possible laboratory accident as the source of the virus – believing that it accidentally escaped a virology laboratory in China and then spread throughout the world.
"The U.S. Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said. The majority in the intelligence community in the US is of the opinion that there is not "sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other," it added.
The statement from the ODNI however did not specify which two of the 17 agencies constituting the US intelligence community is a believer of the theory of the virus originating from infected animals and which agency believed it was a result of an accidental spread from a laboratory.
However the ODNI said in both the cases the agencies that believe in one theory of origin or the other did so with "low or moderate confidence" – which is a jargon used in the spy world which means that they believe that the evidence that supports their belief is far from being conclusive.
Neither the CIA nor the Defense Intelligence Agency currently support either of the alternative explanations for the origin of the novel coronavirus, said a report quoting sources familiar with intelligence community analysis. The two intelligence agencies named above were among the large majority of agencies in the United States that believe that the information is currently available with them is not enough to determine that one scenario was more likely than the other.
(Source:www.channelnewsasia.com)
