By Michael R. Gordon and Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON -- The Central Intelligence Agency has now concluded that the deadly Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a statement issued on Saturday by the agency.

In doing so, the CIA has now joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Energy Department in identifying a laboratory mishap in Wuhan, China as the probable source of the Covid-19 virus. It has killed more than 1.2 million Americans and over seven million people worldwide.

"CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting," an agency spokesman said in a statement released Saturday.

The spokesman added that the judgment was "low confidence" and that the CIA would continue to evaluate "any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA's assessment."

The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The agency had previously taken the stance that it didn't have enough information to assess whether the virus had leapt from an animal to a human or arose from a laboratory mishap.

COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan in late 2019 and then spread rapidly through the world in 2020 and 2021 before the development of vaccines helped limit deaths. It marked one of the worst pandemics in modern history.

But the origins of the virus still divides the U.S. intelligence community, in large part because the Chinese government hasn't cooperated with international investigations. Four U.S. intelligence agencies have favored, with low confidence, the animal transmission theory. So has the National Intelligence Council, a body of senior intelligence officers who reports to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

John Ratcliffe, the new director of the CIA confirmed earlier this week by the Senate, has long said he thought the lab leak theory was the most plausible explanation. In an interview with Breitbart published Friday, Ratcliffe said investigating the issue was a top priority.

Officials familiar with the matter said that the agency has been continuing its work on the question since the virus arose. The agency said in its Saturday statement that "both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible."

A former FBI senior scientist told The Wall Street Journal in December that a fresh look at the virus's origin, and the intelligence community reports on the issue, was needed,

In the waning days of the Biden administration, Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden's national security adviser, called for establishing a panel of outside experts to take a fresh look at the intelligence agencies findings.

Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Dustin Volz at dustin.volz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2025 13:58 ET (18:58 GMT)

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