US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on May 18 that laboratory origin of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) it "certainly" was "one possibility".
However, Walensky told the US Senate that most coronaviruses generally came “from an animal origin", CNBC reported. She mentioned that she has not seen sufficient data to form a conclusion on the origins of the pandemic.
"Certainly the possibilities of, that most coronaviruses that we know of are of origin from, that have infected the population — SARS CoV-1, MERS — generally come from an animal origin," Walensky was quoted as saying by CNBC.
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When asked if there were other possibilities, she said "certainly a lab-based origin is one possibility."
The COVID-19 outbreak began in Wuhan, China and later became a pandemic. There have been calls to investigate the origins of the pandemic, specifically the theory that the virus originated in a laboratory.
A report by The World Health Organization (WHO), released in March, said it was "extremely unlikely" that SARS-CoV-2 was introduced in humans through a laboratory incident.
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