Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, Director of the National Security Agency Gen. Paul Nakasone, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, CIA Director William Burns and FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a House Select Committee on Intelligence hearing concerning worldwide threats, on Capitol Hill March 9, 2023 in Washington, DC.
"All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection," the 10-pageThe report laid out divisions within the Intelligence Community. While the National Intelligence Council and four unnamed agencies found that natural exposure to an infected animal was most likely, the Department of Energy and FBI's assessment was that a laboratory-associated incident was the more likely scenario for the first human infection.
Meanwhile, the CIA and an unidentified agency "remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting," the report states. But "almost all" intelligence agencies agreed that the virus wasn't genetically engineered, and all agencies agreed that Covid was not manufactured as a biological weapon.