Mark Esper, defense chief: Coronavirus probably started naturally

The two most senior U.S. military officials are playing down reports that the new coronavirus may have originated in a research lab in China, even though there have been reports of safety concerns at the facility in Wuhan.

Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper said U.S. officials are confident the coronavirus began in China but declined to comment about specific intelligence information on the virus.

“I would say that most people believe it began naturally — it was organic, if you will,” Mr. Esper said Wednesday during an interview on the Fox News Channel.

At a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Army Gen. Mark Milley told reporters the intelligence was “inconclusive” about the origins of the coronavirus — beyond concluding it started in China.

“The weight of the evidence seems to indicate it’s natural — but we don’t know for certain,” Gen. Milley said.

More than 50,000 U.S. service members — from medical personnel to air crews flying testing equipment around the nation — are taking part in the struggle against COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Had China been more forthcoming, it might have been less severe, Mr. Esper said.

“If the DNA was shared with our experts earlier, we could have had a better understanding of how to deal with it and maybe get a jumpstart on therapeutics and a vaccine,” he said. “It wasn’t until later in January that the (World Health Organization) actually said human-to-human transmission was even possible.”