By Dan McCaleb | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – The COVID-19 virus “more likely” originated from a research lab in China, the CIA now says, though it has “low confidence” in its determination.
Multiple media outlets are reporting the CIA shifted its position from being undecided on the origin to saying it more likely came from the Wuhan lab rather than from human exposure to an infected animal such as a bat.
“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,” a CIA spokesperson said in a statement, according to NBC News. “CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
Other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Energy and former FBI Director Christopher Wray, have said the Wuhan lab is the likely origin of the COVID-19 virus, but expressed a similar lack of confidence as the CIA.
COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, leading elected officials across the U.S. and the world to issue stay-at-home orders that led to millions of job losses. More than 1 million Americans died from COVID-19.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A pastor was recovering Wednesday after being beaten unconscious when a mob of Hindu nationalists attacked a house church gathering in central India, assaulting worshippers that included women and children, Christians familiar with the case said.
Belgium, Britain, France, and Germany are among European countries on heightened alert after an explosion outside a synagogue in eastern Belgium raised fears of possible terrorism linked to the war involving Iran.
U.S. intelligence agencies say they have intercepted encrypted communications believed to originate from Iran, raising concerns that the signals could be intended to activate sleeper cells abroad amid escalating tensions following reports that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike.
Israel is exploring a strategic security partnership with Somaliland that could potentially include a military presence near the mouth of the Red Sea, according to officials cited in a Bloomberg report.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced Wednesday that member nations will release 400 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves, the largest coordinated drawdown in the agency’s history, as the war with Iran disrupts global energy supplies.
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the first new U.S. oil refinery built in half a century will be constructed in Brownsville, Texas, calling the project a historic milestone for American energy independence.
Israel’s military believes Iran’s ability to launch ballistic missiles at the Jewish state could collapse by as much as 95% within days, according to reports Tuesday citing senior Israeli Air Force officials.