Defense Secretary Mark Esper says "a majority of the views" on the origins of the novel coronavirus are still that it naturally emerged in Wuhan, China.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration confirmed it was looking into the possibility the virus was accidentally released from a Wuhan virology lab.

It followed news that US scientific diplomats sent safety warnings back in 2018 about the lab, which had been researching coronaviruses in bats and humans.

Though Esper told NBC's "Today" show it had become hard to trust the Chinese government, he said results were "inconclusive" about the specific origins of the virus.

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Defense Secretary Mark Esper took a cautious line in a new interview on the theory that the novel coronavirus was released from a virology lab in Wuhan, China, after the Trump administration confirmed it was investigating that possibility.

In an interview on NBC's "Today" show on Thursday night, Esper said "a majority of the views right now is that it is natural, it is organic." His comments echoed those of Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who said in a Tuesday press briefing that evidence otherwise was "inconclusive," according to Politico.

The comments came after it emerged Tuesday that scientific diplomats who visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology numerous times in 2018 had sent two warnings back to the US government alleging poor safety practices.

The lab had been studying coronaviruses and their possible transfer between bats and humans — the virus that causes COVID-19 is believed to have originated in bats.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in January. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

After this, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that the government was investigating the possibility that the lab accidentally released the virus.

China has denied this, instead promoting the theory that the virus was ultimately transmitted to humans in one of Wuhan's wet markets, perhaps through an intermediary species after bats.

Speaking with NBC on Thursday, Esper said it was hard to trust the Chinese state on this matter. "We do know one thing," he said. "If the Chinese government, the party, had been more transparent earlier, it would have helped us in terms of staying ahead of this virus ... To this day, they need to be far more forthright than what they've been."

On Wednesday, it emerged that China had learned in mid-January that the virus could spread between humans but sat on the information for six days. At the same time, it said it did not believe human-to-human transmission was possible.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Esper on February 26. REUTERS/Amanda Voisard

On NBC, Esper, like Milley, did not fuel further speculation about the origins of the virus, saying that the Pentagon had been "looking closely" at it but that he couldn't comment much on intelligence matters.

"The results are inconclusive," he said, adding: "A majority of the views right now is that it is natural, that it is organic.

"I think we need to continue to work this, and once we get beyond the pandemic we'll have a chance to look back and really find out what happened."