The Central Intelligence Agency has revised its position on the origins of COVID-19, now suggesting a laboratory incident in China as the more probable source of the virus, CNN reported Saturday.
"CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible," a CIA spokesperson said, according to CNN. "We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA's assessment."
According to CNN, Director John Ratcliffe prioritized this assessment upon taking office. "I've been on record as you know in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictates that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology," Ratcliffe said.
A US official noted that the assessment predated the current administration. The evaluation emerged from a review of existing information rather than new intelligence gathering, as officials indicated such new data would be unlikely to surface years after the event.
The Office of the Director of Intelligence's 2023 report maintained that US intelligence agencies unanimously agree COVID-19 was not developed as a biological weapon, CNN reported. Additionally, most American intelligence agencies concluded the virus was not genetically engineered.
While scientists continue to debate between natural transmission and laboratory origins, the intelligence community has not reached a high-confidence determination on the pandemic's source, maintaining divided positions on this crucial question.
