COVID-19 Wuhan lab-leak hypotheses are "absolutely legitimate" and "plausible," expert says

The U.S. intelligence community is nearly halfway through a 90-day review of the origins of COVID-19. Investigators are looking at whether the virus emerged naturally from human contact with an infected animal or if it accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.

Former State Department officials tell CBS News significant information about the Wuhan lab's activities in 2019 was buried in government databases and didn't reach their desks for nearly a year. In Southwest China, the nearest known relatives of the COVID-19 virus were discovered in caves nearly a decade ago, more than 900 miles from Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic began.