The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which had formerly maintained equivocal positions on the origin of COVID-19, now suggests the possibility of a leak from a Chinese lab as a more plausible scenario than natural spillover. This assessment came about after John Ratcliffe stepped in to take over as CIA director during the time of President Donald Trump.
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Before he left his post as director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe had indicated that determining the origins of COVID-19 would be made a priority. The agency had come to no conclusion earlier regarding natural versus laboratory origins of the virus but evidently revisited the issue and worked with a new hypothesis: research-associated origin is considered more likely than a natural origin by low evidence.
A new analysis of intelligence was called for by former CIA director William Burns in light of these recent revelations. This change coincides with the FBI and Department of Energy, which also support the lab-leak theory-contrasting with much of what has been said by the rest of the intelligence community regarding natural origins.