CIA assesses COVID-19 likely originated from lab leak in China, not natural sources

Washington, DC [US], January 27 : The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has assessed that the COVID-19 virus is more likely to have originated from an accidental lab leak in China rather than from a natural source, CNN reported, citing a statement released by the agency.
The agency's statement, issued on Saturday, comes just two days after John Ratcliffe resumed office as CIA Director. For years, the CIA had stated that it did not have enough information to determine which origin theory was more likely, and its new assessment is classified as a "low confidence" judgment. According to the agency, the natural origin scenario remains possible.
The decision to declassify and make this assessment public highlights one of the first major decisions made by Ratcliffe, who has long supported the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from research conducted in China and pledged to make the issue a Day 1 priority.
In an interview published in Breitbart on Thursday, John Ratcliff said, "I've been on record as you know in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictates that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology," according to CNN report.
He added, "But the CIA has not made that assessment or at least not made that assessment publicly. So I'm going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure that the public is aware that the agency is going to get off the sidelines."
According to a US official, the new assessment was made prior to the Trump administration. The official stated that CIA Director Bill Burns, under President Joe Biden, had pushed analysts to take a stance on the origins of COVID-19. This assessment was published within the US government before Trump left office on January 20.
The assessment was not based on new intelligence gathered by the US government. Officials have said such intelligence is unlikely to surface so many years later; instead, it was reached after reviewing existing information.
In a statement on Saturday, a CIA spokesperson said, "CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible."
The spokesperson added that they have low confidence in this judgment and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence or open-source information that could change the agency's assessment.
CIA spokesperson said, "We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA's assessment," CNN reported.
US intelligence agencies continue to unanimously maintain that the COVID-19 pandemic was not developed as a biological weapon. However, there has been no consensus on the virus's origins, according to the report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in 2023. The report states that nearly all US intelligence agencies agree that the virus itself was not genetically engineered.
The intelligence community has been unable to determine with high confidence whether the COVID-19 pandemic originated as a result of a lab leak or occurred in the wild, CNN reported.
Many scientists believe the COVID-19 virus occurred naturally among animals and spread to humans in an outbreak that occurred in a market in Wuhan, China. Meanwhile, proponents of the "lab leak theory" argue that the virus originated due to research conducted in a Chinese lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Former President Trump embraced the theory during his first term in office. The US State Department under Trump launched an effort to prove that the virus originated in a Chinese lab. However, the Biden administration did not pursue this effort.