Trump's Suggestion COVID-19 Originated in Wuhan Lab Consistent With US Intel - White House

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd May, 2020) US President Donald Trump's statement that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, is consistent with the assessment by US intelligence on the matter, New White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany states in her very first press briefing on Friday.

"The President's statement is consistent with other intelligence assessments," McEnany said. "While we continue to have very limited and dubious data from China, current assessments indicated that President Trump's statement is consistent with what some analysts believe is the epicenter of where the virus began."

On Thursday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said the US intelligence community believes that the novel coronavirus was neither man-made nor genetically modified.

The intelligence community will continue to examine emerging data and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at the Wuhan laboratory, according to the statement.

Some US lawmakers have called for hearings to examine China's role in sprawling the virus, its role in spreading the disease internationally and its efforts to downplay its responsibility for its premeditated actions.

However, the lawmakers� said formal investigations are not likely to begin until the COVID-19 pandemic is under control in the United States.

China has said in official statements the novel coronavirus was developed in a US bio-weapons laboratory and brought to the Wuhan laboratory by infected US service members.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 3.2 million people have been infected with the virus worldwide with over 232,000 fatalities, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.