US, CIA: "Laboratory accident the most likely cause of Covid"

“The CIA assesses that a research-related origin of the pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on available reports,” a spokesperson for the agency said. The finding was not the result of new information, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday at the behest of President Donald Trump. The finding suggests that the agency believes the totality of the evidence makes a laboratory origin more likely than a natural origin. But the CIA’s own assessment gives that conclusion a low confidence level, suggesting the evidence is lacking, inconclusive, or contradictory.

  "Both the natural and research-related scenarios of the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible," the agency warns. The origins of the virus still divide the US intelligence community, largely because the Chinese government has not cooperated with international investigations. Four US intelligence agencies have favored, "with little confidence," the theory of animal transmission. As has the National Intelligence Council, a body of senior intelligence officials that reports to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. 

  John Ratcliffe, the new CIA director confirmed earlier this week by the Senate, has long said he thought the lab escape theory was the most likely explanation. Now, the agency he heads is leaning toward that theory. In the final days of the Biden administration, national security adviser Jake Sullivan called for a panel of outside experts to take a fresh look at the intelligence agencies’ conclusions.