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
South Africa’s authorities have released new details about a mass shooting that killed 12 people, including children, at an unlicensed bar near the administrative capital Pretoria.
Despite Christmas approaching, many Christians in Syria aren’t in a celebratory mood one year after the toppling of longtime autocratic President Bashar al-Assad, investigations reveal.
Evangelical Christian backing for Israel is “more vital than ever” as the Jewish state confronts a surge of antisemitism and anti-Israel activism worldwide, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told a visiting delegation of Christian leaders this week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Dec. 29 to determine the next steps of the Gaza ceasefire plan, Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said Monday during an online briefing.
Some 100 students have been rescued, and about 50 others escaped following Nigeria’s largest Christian school kidnappings in recent years, several sources confirmed Wednesday.
Britain is facing calls for stronger safeguards on the planned use of facial recognition cameras across the country after the Home Office admitted the system is more likely to incorrectly identify black and Asian people than their white counterparts.
Indonesia’s capital was plunged into mourning late Tuesday after at least 22 people, including a pregnant woman, were confirmed dead when a massive fire swept through a seven-story office building in central Jakarta.