Langley joins the FBI and Energy Department in agreeing that a lab leak is the most likely source of the pandemic.

The CIA says it has 'low confidence' in its assessment that a 'research-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely' and notes in its statement that both scenarios - lab origin and natural origin - remain plausible.

Backs Lab Leak Theory for COVID-19, but Confidence Remains Low By India Edwards HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, (HealthDay News) -- After years of speculation, the CIA has weighed in yet again: A lab leak is now considered the likely origin of the COVID pandemic.

Since COVID-19 first took off, political leaders, infectious disease specialists, and the lay public have debated its origins. Eventually, two hypotheses emerged: Either the virus crossed over from animals to humans in a wet market in Wuhan—the city in which the disease first appeared—or it leaked from a Chinese lab,

China says it's "extremely unlikely" that COVID-19​ came from a lab, after the CIA said it believed​, though with low confidence, that it did, rather than from natural transmission.