Covid DID Leak From Lab — Confirms CIA After Years Of Probes Into Chinese Research Facilities Including Wuhan
The CIA has acknowledged that it now favors the lab leak theory.
Jan. 26 2025, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backs the COVID-19 lab leak theory, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
According to an assessment by new CIA director John Ratcliffe, the agency has "low confidence" in this conclusion, adding that there isn't sufficient evidence to easily resolve the ongoing debate over the origin of the pandemic.
Many believe the COVID pandemic started from a lab leak.
The evaluation, declassified and released by Ratcliffe, was conducted during the Biden administration using existing evidence available to the CIA.
The analysis includes a closer look at high-security labs in Wuhan, China.
Ratcliffe, a proponent of the lab leak theory, emphasized the importance of the CIA's involvement in the discussion surrounding COVID-19's origin, highlighting potential implications for U.S.-China relations.
Millions suffered from COVID related deaths around the world.
Ratcliffe said: "One of the things that I've talked about a lot is addressing the threat from China on a number of fronts, and that goes back to why a million Americans died and why the Central Intelligence Agency has been sitting on the sidelines for five years in not making an assessment about the origins of COVID. That's a day-one thing for me."
He added: "I think our intelligence, our science and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of Covid was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But the CIA has not made that assessment or at least not made that assessment publicly.
"So I'm going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure that the public is aware that the agency is going to get off the sidelines."
On Saturday, January 25, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China's U.S. embassy, released a statement, claiming: "We firmly oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the source of the virus, and once again call on everyone to respect science and stay away from conspiracy theories."
The CIA has 'low confidence' in this conclusion.
The search for the origin of the pandemic, which has caused millions of deaths worldwide and led to extensive lockdowns and disruptions, is crucial to prevent future outbreaks.
Determining whether the virus escaped from a lab could lead to enhanced regulations on risky virus research while identifying a wet market as the source might prompt efforts to improve security in such places.
The analysis includes a closer look at high-security labs in Wuhan, China.
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In 2023, in response to a statement by then-FBI director Christopher Wray, which indicated the virus might have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, Mao Ning, China's foreign ministry spokesperson, said: "By rehashing the lab-leak theory, the U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility.
"We urge the U.S. to respect science and facts … stop turning origin tracing into something about politics and intelligence, and stop disrupting social solidarity and origins cooperation."
