COVID'S ORIGIN STILL A MYSTERY, TOP SPY SAYS

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies do not know exactly when or how COVID-19 was initially transmitted.

“The intelligence community does not know exactly where, when or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially,” Haines told a Senate hearing. She noted two theories: that it emerged from human contact with infected animals or the result of a laboratory accident.

“We're continuing to work on this issue and collect information,” Haines said.

Many U.S. lawmakers have denounced China for failing to be more transparent about the early threat from the coronavirus.

World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in March that data was withheld from WHO investigators who travelled to China to research the origins of the coronavirus.