Intelligence community issues inconclusive report about origins of COVID-19

The U.S. intelligence community remains divided about the origin of COVID-19, according to an unclassified summary of its 90-day investigation into the matter. All agencies agreed that two hypotheses are possible – natural exposure to an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident. 

But the report failed to draw a definitive conclusion and issued its main findings with low or moderate confidence, citing impediments stemming from the Chinese government's refusal to share essential data.     "The [intelligence community] judges they will be unable to provide a more definitive explanation for the origin of COVID-19 unless new information allows them to determine the specific pathway for initial natural contact with an animal or to determine that a laboratory in Wuhan was handling SARSCoV-2 or a close progenitor virus before COVID-19 emerged," the report, released Friday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said. SARSCoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.