CIA says Covid 'more likely' to have leaked from lab

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has revised its stance on the origins of Covid-19, stating on Saturday that the virus is "more likely" to have leaked from a Chinese laboratory than to have been transmitted through animals. This marks a significant departure from the agency's previous neutral position on the matter.

The updated assessment follows the confirmation of John Ratcliffe as CIA director under Donald Trump’s second administration. Ratcliffe, who previously served as the director of national intelligence during Trump's first term, has been a vocal advocate of the lab-leak theory. In an interview with Breitbart published Friday, Ratcliffe emphasized that determining the origins of Covid-19 would be a priority for the agency, stating, "The agency is going to get off the sidelines."

A CIA spokesperson elaborated on the agency's findings, saying, "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 statement further noted that the agency continues to consider both the lab-leak and natural transmission scenarios as plausible.

The shift in the CIA's position is reportedly based on a new analysis of existing intelligence, initiated by former CIA director William Burns before Ratcliffe's arrival. This analysis has brought the CIA's view closer to that of other U.S. agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Energy, which also support the lab-leak hypothesis, though with varying degrees of confidence. However, most of the U.S. intelligence community continues to lean toward natural origins.

Advocates of the lab-leak theory argue that the earliest known cases of Covid-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, a major hub for coronavirus research. They point out the proximity of the Wuhan Institute of Virology to the outbreak's epicenter and highlight the distance of approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) between Wuhan and the nearest bat populations carrying SARS-like viruses, which would have been a natural reservoir for the disease.

This ongoing debate underscores the complexities and challenges in determining the definitive origins of Covid-19, as the intelligence community remains divided on the issue.