U.S. military says coronavirus likely not man-made but ‘we don’t know for certain’

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.

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“There’s a lot of rumour 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,” said Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He made the remarks at 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,” Milley added.

“But we don’t know for certain.”

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