CIA Suggests COVID-19 Likely Escaped from Chinese Lab

washington - The CIA suggests that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic likely lies in a Chinese laboratory, but certainty may never be achieved due to lack of cooperation.

CIA Suggests COVID-19 Originated from Chinese Lab

The CIA released an assessment stating that the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a Chinese laboratory. However, certainty may never be reached as the Chinese authorities are not cooperating. The assessment, requested by the Biden administration and former CIA director William Burns, was released on Saturday by John Ratcliffe, the newly appointed head of the CIA by Trump.

The CIA believes that 'the totality of the evidence makes a laboratory origin more likely than a natural one.' Yet, the agency itself assigns a 'low confidence level' to the conclusion, indicating that the evidence supporting the claim is lacking, inconclusive, or contradictory.

Previous reports on the origin of COVID-19 were divided on whether it originated from a Chinese lab, accidentally or not, or naturally. This new assessment is unlikely to settle the debate, with intelligence officials stating that there may never be absolute certainty, partly due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities. 'We continue to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios remain plausible.'

Republican Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed satisfaction that the CIA, in the final days of the Biden administration, concluded that the lab leak theory was the most plausible explanation. Cotton commended Ratcliffe for releasing the assessment and emphasized the need to hold China accountable for releasing a plague upon the world.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chinese authorities have previously dismissed speculations on the origin of COVID-19 as useless and politically motivated.