The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) announced Saturday that it now believes the Covid-19 pandemic was “more likely” the result of a lab leak in China rather than transmission from animals.
The revised assessment follows the confirmation of John Ratcliffe as CIA Director on Thursday under former President Donald Trump’s second administration. Ratcliffe, who served as Director of National Intelligence during Trump’s first term, had pledged to prioritize an investigation into the origins of the virus.
“The agency is going to get off the sidelines,” Ratcliffe, a proponent of the lab-leak theory, said in an interview with right-wing outlet Breitbart.
A CIA spokesperson later released a statement reflecting the agency’s position. “CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting,” the spokesperson said.
Previously, the CIA had not taken a definitive stance on whether Covid-19 emerged due to a laboratory mishap or through natural transmission from animals. The spokesperson also clarified, “CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
According to a U.S. official speaking to AFP, the shift stems from new intelligence analysis completed under former CIA Director William Burns, prior to Ratcliffe’s appointment this week.
While some U.S. agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Energy, have supported the lab-leak hypothesis with varying degrees of confidence, the broader intelligence community has leaned toward natural origins.
Advocates of the lab-leak theory point to the proximity of early Covid-19 cases in Wuhan, China, a hub for coronavirus research, which lies about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from bat populations harboring similar SARS-like viruses.
The debate over the origins of the virus remains contentious, with the international community urging greater transparency from China.
