Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator, said it was too soon to determine whether the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory.
“Anytime we have a new virus, it’s important to figure out its origins. I think we’re still a long way from figuring it out. It took us decades to figure out HIV and Ebola. It’s gonna take us a while to really map and trace this particular virus, map it through its experience in humans, and get the scientific evidence of where this virus originated. We know it originated in China, we just don’t know specifically how and where,” Birx told CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday.
“I don’t have the evidence that it was a laboratory accident. I also don’t know precisely where it originated,” she said, adding, “Right now, the general consensus is animal-to-human [transmission].”
The broad scientific consensus is that the virus originated in bats. However, the U.S. Intelligence Community is reportedly investigating the theory that the coronavirus may have originated in a Wuhan government lab through an accidental escape or inadvertent infection. Intelligence officials have thus far ruled out the virus being a genetically-engineered Chinese bioweapon.
President Trump said on Friday that “a lot of strange things are happening” regarding the origins of the virus, adding that the United States is trying to determine whether it came from a laboratory.
“We’re going to find out,” he said.
