The CIA believes COVID likely originated from a lab but has low confidence in its own finding
A view of the P4 lab inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China — even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion. The CIA “continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment. Two years ago a report by the Energy Department concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin, though that report also expressed low confidence in the finding. The same year then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said his agency believed the virus “most likely” spread after escaping from a lab.
CIA assesses lab leak most plausible source of Covid-19, though with low confidence
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