Washington: The novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic may have originated in a Chinese laboratory, but there is no evidence it was a bioweapon or intentionally released, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.
“The bottom line is we don’t know conclusively, but the possibility that it originated in a lab is very clear and very real,” Blinken said during an interview with India Today. “That’s also separate from the question of whether this had anything to do with a biological weapon and anything to do with intentional actions by a country to develop it, use it, release it.”
No US agency has found evidence of COVID-19 being released intentionally as a biological weapon, Blinken added.
On Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency assesses that the COVID-19 pandemic “most likely” originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. Other intelligence agencies have tied the novel coronavirus to a market in Wuhan.
