The CIA has announced that it believes the COVID-19 pandemic “more likely” originated from a laboratory leak than a natural event.
The CIA’s “low confidence” assessment comes after John Ratcliffe was on Thursday sworn in as director of the top intelligence agency under United States President Donald Trump.
The “CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible”, a spokesperson said on Saturday.
US media reported that the assessment had been ordered under the administration of former US President Joe Biden and was completed before Ratcliffe took up his post.
The assessment was also based on existing intelligence, not new information, according to the reports.
Following the CIA’s announcement, three US agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Energy, have now publicly backed the theory that COVID-19 most likely escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.
China’s embassy in Washington, DC, rejected the CIA assessment, which it said “concocts misleading conclusions, throws dirty water on China, and engages in framing”.
Liu added that China “has always adhered to the spirit of science, openness and transparency” and pointed to a 2021 World Health Organization-China joint study that concluded a lab leak was “extremely unlikely”.
Four other US intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council have stated that they believe the virus most likely emerged via natural transmission.
In an interview with Breitbart News on Friday, Ratcliffe had said that COVID’s origins would be a “day-one” priority.
“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. But the CIA has not made that assessment or at least not made that assessment publicly,” Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, told the outlet.
“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.”
