The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is now more certain that COVID-19 originated in a lab instead of the mainstream consensus that the virus came from an infected bat or similar mammal.
This announcement comes as a declassified report made by former CIA Director William Burns and was released on January 25. During the previous administration, former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan ordered the assessment. In the report, Burns claims the lab-leak theory is more likely to be true than the zoonotic theory (animal-originated) of the COVID-19 virus.
John Ratcliffe, Burns’ successor as Director of the CIA, told Fox News: “I had the opportunity on my first day to make public an assessment that actually took place in the Biden administration… [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.’’
However, a CIA spokesperson stated that the agency holds “low confidence” in the lab-leak theory, and maintains the possibility of changing its assessment if the evaluation of “credible new intelligence” proves otherwise. The zoonotic theory of the coronavirus has been maintained by the scientific community at large since the outset of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
In response to the CIA’s announcement, China re-affirmed its opposition to the lab-leak theory. According to The Hill, Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, stated: “It is extremely unlikely the pandemic was caused by a lab leak. This has been widely recognized by the international community, including the scientific community.”
Concerning the current direction of the CIA, Ratcliffe said he would like the agency to be more truthful with Americans in an effort to regain public trust. This new direction was also “stressed” by President Trump.
