The origins of COVID-19

 Mimi Lau in the South China Morning Post: « 

The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei province, is at the centre of the controversial coronavirus lab leak theory. Photo: AFP

A trove of genetic data gathered by US intelligence agencies is unlikely to definitively prove whether the 

coronavirus

 

leaked from a lab

 in central China because much of the evidence is indirect and circumstantial, according to scientific experts.

CNN cited sources saying US intelligence agencies had gained access to a catalogue of virus information that contained genetic blueprints drawn from virus samples studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the facility that some US officials claim could have been the source of the pathogen.

The new coronavirus that causes Covid-19 was first detected in Wuhan in late December 2019 and its origins remain unknown. »