A CIA report found that the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic likely came from a lab in Wuhan, China, though the agency expressed “low confidence” in its own conclusion.
Various American intelligence agencies and scientific groups have released reports about COVID’s origins in the past several years, reaching different conclusions.
The latest CIA report, which did not feature any new intelligence, was conducted near the end of President Joe Biden’s term. It was declassified Saturday by President Trump’s new CIA director, John Ratcliffe.
“The most likely cause of this pandemic that has wrought so much devastation around the world was because of a lab-related incident in Wuhan,” Ratcliffe said Sunday on Fox News. “We will continue to investigate that moving forward.”
This aerial view shows the P4 laboratory (C) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on May 27, 2020. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)
Due to a lack of cooperation from the Chinese government, the world may never confidently know exactly how the COVID-19 pandemic began. Many scientists believe the virus mutated from an animal and jumped into humans as other viruses have done in the past.
But numerous U.S. government departments have launched their own investigations into the start of the pandemic, many reaching similar “low confidence” conclusions. The CIA had not taken an official position before Biden ordered the new review.
Ratcliffe, who served as Director of National Intelligence from May 2020 through the end of Trump’s first term, has previously said he believes in the lab leak theory.
“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence and common sense,” he said in 2023.