CIA now says COVID-19 'more likely' to have come from lab

An epidemic-prevention worker in a protective suit stands guard at the gate of a residential compound as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in Beijing

The Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is "more likely" to have emerged from a lab rather than from nature, an agency spokesperson said .

“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,” a spokesperson for the agency said Saturday in a statement.

The announcement follows the arrival of CIA Director John Ratcliffe, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the agency, who has been vocal on the issue. In an interview with Breitbart published on Friday — a day after his swearing-in — Ratcliffe said the CIA’s assessment of Covid’s origins would be a “day-one thing for me.”

“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,” Ratcliffe told Breitbart.

The CIA continues to assess both origin scenarios as plausible and will evaluate any available intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change its assessment, the spokesperson said as reported by Bloomberg News. A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.

The agency’s shift in stance stems from closer scrutiny of existing information, said a US official familiar with the matter, adding that no new collected information led to the change in position.

China’s government says it supports and has taken part in research to determine COVID-19’s origin, and has accused Washington of politicizing the matter, especially because of efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate. Beijing has said claims that a laboratory leak likely caused the pandemic have no credibility as reported by Reuters.

“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said in statement.

*With Agency Inputs