The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the clearinghouse for the online of U.S. spy agencies, comes as President Donald Trump and his allies have touted the as-yet-unproven theory that an communicable disease lab in Wuhan, the epicenter of the Chinese outbreak, was the source of the worldwide pandemic that has killed quite 220,000 worldwide.
The statement was made shortly after claims surfaced within the ny Times that intelligence analysts were concerned that intelligence might be distorted to suit a pre-determined conclusion.
In recent days the Trump administration has sharpened his rhetoric on China, accusing the geopolitical foe and vital trading partner of failing to try to to act swiftly enough to prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 or sound the alarm to the planet about the outbreak.
'The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus wasn't manmade or genetically modified,' said the statement.
'The IC will still rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to work out whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it had been the results of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.'
Trump addressed the idea earlier this month, saying, 'More and more, we're hearing the story.' Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added, 'The mere incontrovertible fact that we do not know the answers - that China hasn't shared the answers - i feel is extremely , very telling.'
Pompeo also pressed China to let outside experts into the lab 'so that we will determine precisely where this virus began.'
Scientists say the virus arose naturally in bats.
Even so, Pompeo et al. have pointed fingers at an institute that's travel by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
It has done groundbreaking research tracing the likely origins of the SARS virus, finding new bat viruses and discovering how they might jump to people.
'We know that there's the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a couple of miles faraway from where the wet market was,' Pompeo said fortnight ago. The institute has an address 8 miles, or 13 kilometers, from the market.
U.S. officials say the American Embassy in Beijing flagged concerns about potential questions of safety at the lab in Wuhan in 2018, but have yet to seek out any evidence the virus originated there nearly two years later.
The Chinese government said Thursday that any claims that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory are 'unfounded and purely fabricated out of nothing.'
Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang cited the institute's director, Yuan Zhiming, as saying the lab strictly implements bio-security procedures that might prevent the discharge of any pathogen.
'I would really like to means again that the origin of the virus may be a complex scientific issue, and it should be studied by scientists and professionals,' Geng said.
Geng also criticized U.S. politicians who have suggested China should be held in charge of the worldwide pandemic, saying they ought to spend their time on 'better controlling the epidemic situation reception .'
But a Chinese government spokesman, Zhao Lijian, demonstrated that China wasn't above sowing confusion within the face of the pandemic. He tweeted in March the falsehood that the virus may need come from the U.S. Army.
If the Trump administration were to seek out evidence that firmly established a link to the Chinese government laboratory, it might bolster its case for 'reparations' which Trump as made publicly in the week .
He said Wednesday that the U.S. are going to be taking strong action against China as he ordered investigations into Beijing after claiming they knew about the coronavirus threat before disclose and will have done more to prevent the pandemic.
'We're arising with a really distinct recommendation. But we're not proud of it,' Trump said of potential economic consequences against China.
'There's nothing positive about what happened in China having to try to to with this subject. Nothing positive in the least ,' the president said.
'We're lucky that we stopped it in January flowing into our country from China,' Trump said, lauding his decision to pack up travel from China to the U.S. earlier this year – apart from allowing U.S. citizens to return home.
The president said the planet Health Organization was acting love it worked for China, and said he would be issuing a 'recommendation' on the way to affect WHO and China.
A Wednesday morning report revealed that the White House ordered intelligence investigations into whether China initially downplayed and hid the emerging coronavirus threat, a Wednesday report revealed, as Donald Trump continues to put blame for the dimensions of the pandemic.
'It's coming in and i am getting pieces already,' Trump said of the investigations by the NSA, CIA and therefore the Defense intelligence . 'And we're not happy about it.'
'We are far and away the most important contributor to WHO – world health. and that they misled us,' he said, confirming he feels WHO also lied about what they knew early about the virus. 'I do not know – they need to have known quite they knew.'
'We knew things that they didn't know – either they didn't know or they didn't tell us,' he continued. 'Right now they're literally a organ for China. that is the way I view it. So, we're seeing and we're looking and we're watching.'
'Again we give $500 million – we've over the years – from $400-$500 for an extended time, for several years. And China is giving $38 million, and yet they appear to figure for China,' he lamented.
Intelligence agencies received directives from the White House last week seeking information on the first days of the coronavirus outbreak, including communication intercepts, human source reporting and satellite imagery reviews from China and WHO, current and former officials conversant in the directions told NBC News.
One official revealed that the 'tasking' was sent last week to the National Security Agency and Defense intelligence , which incorporates the National Center for Medical Agency.
The CIA also received an identical request, the officials said.
Top Chinese official calls Donald Trump's demand for reparations over coronavirus 'blackmail' and says U.S. had many notice crisis was coming
China suggested Tuesday that Donald Trump is 'blackmailing' them by blaming Beijing for the coronavirus pandemic and demanding it pay compensations to the U.S.
Le Yucheng, China's Executive Vice secretary of state , told NBC News in an interview that aired Wednesday morning that Trump's demands are 'preposterous' and present a 'political farce.'
'Asking China to form reparations for these quite claims – they need no legal basis. there's no law of nations that supports blaming a rustic for simply being the primary to report a disease,' Le said.
Trump demanded during his briefing Tuesday that China pay reparations to the U.S. for coronavirus damages, but said a final number for billing had not yet been decided.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he's reassured that other countries also are launching investigations into China's early handling of coronavirus and demanding compensations – and he dismissed Le's comments as 'classic communist disinformation.'
'What the Chinese Communist Party did here and not preventing the spread of this round the world they're liable for , America must hold them accountable,' Pompeo told Fox & Friends Wednesday morning.
'I've been heartened to ascertain Australia, other countries joining us, demanding an investigation because while we all know this started in Wuhan, China,' he said. 'We don't yet know from where it started, and in spite of our greatest efforts to urge experts on the bottom , they still attempt to hide and obfuscate. That's wrong.'
'It continues to pose a threat to the planet , and that we all got to get to rock bottom of what actually happened here not just for the present instant but to form sure something like this does not happen again,' the State head continued.
While Le, 57, said within the interview, which was conducted in Mandarin, that he wouldn't object to scientific investigations into the virus' origins, he demanded it's kept faraway from 'conspiracy theories.'
'We don't oppose normal communication and mutual learning between scientists,' he said. 'What we do oppose is bigoted investigations supported the presumption of China's guilt. that's something we firmly oppose.'
Trump has shifted his tone from praising China for its handling of coronavirus, to blaming the Asian country for exacerbating the severity by failing to be transparent about the disease earlier on within the outbreak.
'I want to mention China has not covered anything up. We didn't cause any delay,' Le said.
He also has lauded his own decision to ban travel from China to the U.S. within the midst of the outbreak despite political pushback since it had been early within the pandemic before the important threat was known.
Le told NBC News that Trump is trying to politicize the virus and rejected any accusations that China tried to hide up the initial outbreak.
Instead, he mentioned the pandemic as a 'natural disaster' and insisted Beijing can't be held financially responsible for COVID-19.
'On Jan. 23 when Wuhan went under lockdown, the us reported just one confirmed case, but on March 13 when President Trump announced a national emergency, the us reported over 1,600 confirmed cases,' Le said in deflecting blame faraway from Beijing.
'In this interval of fifty days, what was the U.S. government doing? Where have those 50 days gone?' he continued.
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