U.S. intelligence debunks conspiracy theories claiming COVID-19 is 'manmade'

The U.S. intelligence community is siding with science on this one.

Since the coronavirus' beginnings, conspiracy theorists have spread unfounded claims that COVID-19 was manmade or some kind of bioweapon aimed at attacking other countries. The Director of National Intelligence's office released a statement Thursday concluding that's not true, though it's still investigating to figure out exactly where the coronavirus came from.

"The Intelligence community concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified," the DNI office's statement read. But it will continue to "rigorously examine ... whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan."

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The White House has also ordered U.S. intelligence to probe whether China hid information about the virus from the rest of the world in its early days, officials familiar with the matter told NBC News on Wednesday.