CIA releases new analysis on COVID origins favoring lab leak theory

The review was ordered by former President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan toward the end of Biden's time in office. 

Analysts made the assessment with "low confidence" despite former CIA director Bill Burns, who remained agnostic on the origins, telling the agency it needed to look at the existing evidence again and come down on one side or the other.

Ratcliffe, who was confirmed Thursday, has long been a proponent of the lab leak theory. In an interview with Breitbart, Ratcliffe framed the assessment of COVID's origins as part of a broader strategy "addressing the threat from China." 

He also said he wants the CIA to "get off the sidelines" and take a stand.

He also cast doubt on the notion that the CIA did not have enough evidence to come to a conclusion about the virus' origins."The CIA is the world's premier spy agency. Its reach is unmatched, its ability to acquire information unrivaled. And yet here we are three-and-a-half years later and there is ample public reporting that the CIA just doesn't have enough information to make an assessment. This is utter nonsense," the March 2023 piece says.

In the same piece, Ratcliffe and Sims dismissed the idea that the virus emerged naturally, claiming there was "a complete absence of intelligence or scientific evidence" pointing to that conclusion.When he testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in April 2023, Ratcliffe said the lab leak theory was "the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense."