COVID-19 virus not 'manmade or genetically modified': US intelligence community

The entire Intelligence Community (IC) has been consistently providing critical support to US policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a statement.

PTI

April 30, 2020 / 22:12 IST

The deadly coronavirus is not "manmade or genetically modified", US intelligence agencies said on Thursday, asserting that they will "rigorously" examine the emerging information to determine if the COVID-19 outbreak began through contact with infected animals or due to an accident at a laboratory in China.

The entire Intelligence Community (IC) has been consistently providing critical support to US policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a statement.

"The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified," ODNI said giving its assessment about the deadly virus that has so far killed more than 61,000 Americans and over 228,000 people globally.

The ODNI said the American intelligence community experts responded by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to US national security.

"The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan," ODNI said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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