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CIA now says COVID-19 'more likely' to have come from lab

25 January 2025 23:58 (UTC +04:00)

The Central Intelligence Agency has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is "more likely" to have emerged from a lab rather than from nature, an agency spokesperson said on Saturday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

The agency had for years said it could not conclude whether COVID-19 was the result of a lab incident or it originated in nature. But in the final weeks of the Biden administration, former CIA Director William Burns asked CIA analysts and scientists to make a clear determination, stressing the pandemic's historical significance, according to a senior U.S. official.

The CIA says it has "low confidence" in its assessment that a "research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely" and notes in its statement that both scenarios - lab origin and natural origin - remain plausible.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.