The first discoveries of people infected with the COVID-19 virus were in Wuhan. Five years after the initial lockdown was imposed, the Chinese city has not yet recovered from the crisis.
Langley joins the FBI and Energy Department in agreeing that a lab leak is the most likely source of the pandemic.
It was unclear the extent to which the agency has collected new intelligence on COVID-19's origins and whether that new evidence was used to formulate the latest assessment.
The CIA says both a natural origin and a lab leak "remain plausible" as potential sources of covid-19, following a review of the pandemic's origins.
The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated ... or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late ...
The Central Intelligence Agency previously said that two explanations were plausible, a lab leak or a natural source for the virus. Yet under new agency director John Ratcliffe, the CIA has changed its view, which is now in line with that of the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The CIA says lab leak is most likely source of COVID outbreak. But there is no consensus among scientists whether it originated in nature or from an accidental leak. Not to mention the fact we're still living with COVID: The World Health Organization COVID-19 Dashboard continues to report hundreds of thousands of cases every month worldwide.
The CIA now assesses the virus that causes Covid-19 more likely originated from an accidental lab leak in China, rather than occurring naturally, according to a statement from the agency Saturday, just days after Director John Ratcliffe took the reins.
The Central Intelligence Agency with a "low confidence" has changed its stance and concluded that it's likely the COVI-19 virus was leaked from a Chinese lab before it became a global pandemic five years ago.
The Central Intelligence Agency said the Covid-19 pandemic “more likely” originated from a lab leak than a natural source, shifting its stance after previously saying both scenarios were possible.
The CIA says it has "low confidence" in its assessment that a "research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely."