While U.S. officials are reportedly exploring an unverified theory the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory, Defense Secretary Mark Esper says a “majority of the views” on its origin are still that it naturally emerged.

“This is something we’ve been watching closely now for some time, the results are inconclusive,” Esper said during an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday. “A majority of the views right now is that it is natural, it is organic.” Esper’s comments aligned with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who said Tuesday that evidence about the origins of the virus is “inconclusive,” according to Politico.

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Scientists have yet to determine exactly how the novel coronavirus spreading around the globe began infecting people. But theories have swirled that the virus originated in bats, then infected another animal that passed it to humans at a wet market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak emerged late last year.

A study published in Nature Medicine compared the genome of the new coronavirus with several others known to infect humans and researchers concluded that “analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”

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Recently, however, The Washington Post reported that in March 2018, U.S. Embassy officials visited a Wuhan lab and sent two warnings back to Washington about inadequate safety at the lab, which was carrying out studies on coronaviruses from bats. The report has further brought questions to the unsubstantiated claim the virus originated in the lab.

On Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. is pressing China to let outside experts into the lab “so that we can determine precisely where the virus began,” according to The Associated Press (AP).

During an appearance on Fox News Wednesday, Pompeo went into more detail on the theory.

“What we do know is we know that this virus originated in Wuhan, China,” he said. “We know there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology just a handful of miles away from where the wet market was. There is still lots to learn. The United States government is working diligently to figure it out,” Pompeo added.

China pushed back against the Trump administration, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman Friday accusing the administration of trying to shift the focus from its own failings in dealing with the outbreak by talking up the theory the virus started in a lab, according to AP.

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