US officials are reportedly looking into the possibility that the coronavirus did not originate in a wet market in Wuhan but actually escaped from a lab experimenting on the deadly illness.
There is “increasing confidence” among officials that the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab is the original site of the virus after a report said Embassy officials warned in January 2018 about inadequate safety there, according to Fox News.
President Trump did not directly address the “theory” during a White House press conference on Wednesday.
“It should be no surprise to you that we have taken a keen interest in that and we’ve had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that,” Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox about the Wuhan lab.
“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.”
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said he sees China “withholding information.”
“I think we need to do more to continue to press them to share,” he told the network.
The theory was the latest effort by Trump officials to pin the blame on China after criticism over the administration’s inaction as the virus spread across the country.
