Central Intelligence Agency has determined that an incident of laboratory origin, rather than natural transmission, is more likely to be behind the COVID-19 outbreak, a spokesman said on Saturday.
For years, the CIA told the world that it could not say definitively whether the virus came from a lab or naturally. But at the end, in the waning days of the Biden administration, former CIA Director William Burns tasked analysts and scientists with saying so definitively-and at historic significance, he emphasized, says a senior US official.
The CIA further adds that it has “low confidence” in its assessment favoring a lab-related origin and that both possibilities, lab origin and natural emergence, remain plausible.
China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. Beijing has consistently rejected claims that a laboratory leak caused the pandemic, labeling such accusations as lacking credibility. The Chinese government asserts its commitment to research into COVID-19’s origins and has accused Washington of politicizing the issue, particularly due to US intelligence agencies’ involvement in investigations.
It is not known whether the CIA updated its assessment based on new intelligence or existing evidence.
It was on Friday that the US Senate confirmed CIA Director John Ratcliffe as he emphasized in a recent interview with Breitbart how there is much to be done regarding the origins of the pandemic. “That’s a day-one priority for me,” Ratcliffe said. He repeated his personal belief that intelligence, science, and common sense point to a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as the likely source of the virus.
This evaluation has been feeding the global controversy over the origins of COVID-19 and is brewing the tension between the United States and China.
