WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military believes that the coronavirus likely occurred naturally, as opposed to being developed in a Chinese laboratory, but there is still no certainty either way, the top U.S. general said on Tuesday.
“There’s a lot of rumor and speculation in a wide variety of media, the blog sites, etc. It should be no surprise to you that we’ve taken a keen interest in that and we’ve had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that,” Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news briefing, when asked if there was any evidence the coronavirus may have been developed in a Chinese laboratory.
“And I would just say, at this point, it’s inconclusive although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural. But we don’t know for certain.”
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali)
