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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Health

CIA says ‘more likely’ COVID-19 originated from a lab

CIA Covid-19 John Ratcliffe China Donald Trump Liu Pengyu United States Wuhan Institute of Virology
A security person moves journalists away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a World Health Organization team arrived for a field visit in Wuhan in China's Hubei province on February 3, 2021 [Ng Han Guan/AP]

The CIA has announced that it believes the COVID-19 pandemic “more likely” originated from a laboratory leak than a natural event.

The CIA’s “low confidence” assessment comes after John Ratcliffe was on Thursday sworn in as director of the top intelligence agency under United States President Donald Trump.

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