U.S. intelligence has ruled out that the coronavirus was developed as a weapon, and most agencies assess with “low confidence” it was not genetically engineered
President Joe Biden said Friday that China was withholding “critical information” on the origins of COVID-19 after the U.S. intelligence community said it did not believe the virus was a bioweapon — but remained split on whether it escaped from a lab.
The United States, however, does not believe Chinese officials had foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of the pandemic that has now claimed 4.5 million lives, according to an unclassified summary of an eagerly awaited intelligence report.
“Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the People’s Republic of China, yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it,” Mr. Biden said in a statement.
“To this day, the…