CIA Reveals Lab Leak Likely Responsible for COVID Pandemic
The CIA now believes that the COVID-19 virus probably came from a laboratory, possibly in China. However, the agency admits it has “low confidence” in this conclusion, meaning the evidence is not strong or clear.
This conclusion wasn’t based on any new information. The report was put together under the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was released on Saturday after being declassified by John Ratcliffe, who was recently sworn in as the CIA director under President Donald Trump.
The report suggests that, overall, the evidence makes a lab origin seem more likely than the virus starting naturally. However, since the evidence is weak, incomplete, or contradictory, the CIA is not very confident in its findings.
“I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration. So it can’t be accused of being political,” Ratcliffe told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” He said the CIA “has assessed that the most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of a lab-related incident in Wuhan. And so we will continue to investigate that moving forward.’'
Reports about where COVID-19 started have been divided—some say it may have accidentally leaked from a lab in China, while others believe it came from nature. The latest assessment isn’t expected to end the debate. Intelligence officials say the truth might never be known because Chinese authorities have not cooperated.
The CIA “continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment.
This conclusion isn’t based on new discoveries but instead comes from a fresh review of intelligence. Officials looked at how the virus spread, its scientific features, and the conditions inside China’s virology labs.
Lawmakers have been pushing U.S. intelligence agencies to dig deeper into the virus’s origins. Understanding where COVID-19 came from matters not just for public health but also for political and global relations, as the world continues to deal with the aftermath of the pandemic.
Chinese officials have rejected any speculation about where COVID-19 started, calling it unhelpful and politically motivated. On Saturday, a spokesperson for China’s U.S. embassy said the CIA report can’t be trusted and lacks credibility.
“We firmly oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the source of the virus, and once again call on everyone to respect science and stay away from conspiracy theories,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.
Scientists believe COVID-19 most likely started in bats, similar to other coronaviruses, and then jumped to another animal, possibly raccoon dogs, civet cats, or bamboo rats. Humans likely got infected while handling or butchering these animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first cases appeared in late November 2019.
However, some investigations have questioned whether the virus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan. In 2021, the Energy Department reported that a lab leak was the most likely origin, but it expressed low confidence in this conclusion. That same year, former FBI Director Christopher Wray said the FBI also believed a lab leak was the most probable explanation.
John Ratcliffe, who served as Director of National Intelligence under President Trump, has publicly supported the lab leak theory, stating, “The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense.”
The CIA has said it will continue to review any new information that could shed light on the virus’s origins.
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