CIA says ‘more likely’ COVID-19 originated from a lab

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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.

“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.”

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.