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CIA Believes COVID-19 ‘More Likely’ To Have Come From Lab

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) offered a new assessment on the origin of the Covid outbreak on Saturday, stating it is “more likely” that the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese lab than originated from animals.

The agency cautioned that it had “low confidence” in this conclusion. A spokesperson suggested that a “research-related origin” of the pandemic is more plausible than a natural one, based on existing reports.

This announcement is one of the first actions under the CIA’s new director, John Ratcliffe, who was appointed by Donald Trump and assumed leadership of the agency on Thursday.

Ratcliffe, previously the Director of National Intelligence during President Trump’s first term, has consistently supported the lab leak theory, asserting that Covid likely originated from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

This institute is located about a 40-minute drive from the Huanan wet market, the site of the initial cluster of infections.

In a Breitbart News interview published on Friday, Ratcliffe expressed his desire for the CIA to take a definitive stance on the virus’s origins rather than remain neutral.

“One of the things that I’ve talked about a lot is addressing the threat from China on a number of fronts, and that goes back to why a million Americans died and why the CIA has been sitting on the sidelines for five years not making an assessment about the origins of COVID,” he said. “That’s a day-one thing for me.”

However, officials informed US media that the new assessment was not based on recent intelligence and actually predated the Trump administration. It was reportedly initiated during the final weeks of the Biden administration and concluded before Trump assumed office on Monday.

The assessment shared on Saturday relies on “low confidence,” indicating that the supporting intelligence is inadequate, inconclusive, or contradictory.

There remains no consensus regarding the cause of the Covid pandemic.

Some endorse a “natural origin” theory, which posits that the virus spread naturally from animals without any involvement from scientists or labs.

The lab leak hypothesis remains highly contested among scientists, many of whom argue there is no conclusive evidence supporting it, and China has previously condemned the lab allegation as “political manipulation” by Washington.

Nevertheless, the once controversial theory has been gaining acceptance among some intelligence agencies.

In 2023, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News that his bureau believes “the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident”.