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 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The Trump administration has prevented more than $1 billion in attempted federal student-loan fraud this year after reinstating strict identity-verification requirements that officials say were weakened under the Biden administration.
The Trump administration is preparing to appoint an American two-star general to command the newly formed International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza, according to a report published Thursday by Axios citing U.S. and Israeli officials.
The man accused of assassinating born-again Christian activist Charlie Kirk, the founder of the Turning Point USA movement, was to make his first in-person court appearance Thursday, nearly three months after he was taken into custody.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly advanced the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), approving nearly $900 billion in defense spending and a broad slate of U.S.-Israel security initiatives. The bipartisan vote was 312-112, sending the legislation to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.
Growing frictions between the United States and its European allies emerged Thursday after tense conversations over how to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two, the ongoing war in Ukraine.
European Union health authorities have warned that “changing diets and an aging population” may contribute to a rise in serious and sometimes deadly Listeria infections across the continent.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the long-anticipated announcement of the Gaza “Board of Peace” will take place early next year, marking a delay from earlier expectations that the rollout would occur before Christmas.