
Following the new assessment of the origin of the viral COVID-19 outbreak, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Saturday disclosed that the pandemic is “more likely” to have originated from a laboratory incident rather than from animals.
The CIA’s new Director, John Ratcliffe appointed by Donald Trump, who took over the agency on Thursday, January 23 made this disclosure in a press statement.
Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during President Trump’s first term, has long favoured the lab leak theory, claiming Covid most likely came from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The institute is a 40-minute drive from the Huanan wet market where the first cluster of infections emerged.
Recall that the CIA had, for years, maintained that it could not definitively determine whether the virus emerged from a lab or through natural means.
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However, former CIA Director William Burns, in the final weeks of the Biden administration, urged analysts and scientists to make a clear assessment, citing the pandemic’s historical importance.
The CIA’s latest evaluation does not dismiss the possibility of natural origins, stating that both scenarios remain plausible.
It is not clear if the CIA has obtained new intelligence to substantiate its findings or whether existing evidence was re-evaluated.
China’s government, which has consistently denied the lab leak theory, has accused the U.S. of politicizing the investigation into COVID-19’s origins.
However the newly confirmed CIA Director John Ratcliffe stressed the importance of addressing the issue in a public assessment.
Speaking in an interview with Breitbart following his Senate confirmation on Friday, Ratcliffe stated, “I’ve been on record as you know in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”