China said on Monday it was “extremely unlikely” COVID-19 came from a laboratory, after the The CIA has said it believes The virus more likely came from a laboratory rather than natural transmission.
“The conclusion that a laboratory leak is extremely unlikely was reached by China’s joint expert team based on field visits to relevant laboratories in Wuhan,” the spokesperson said. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning.
“This has been widely recognized by the international community and the scientific community,” she added.
The CIA said Saturday that the virus was “more likely” leaked from a Chinese laboratory than transmitted by animals.
Ng Han Guan / AP
The new assessment came after John Ratcliffe was confirmed last week as CIA director in President Trump’s second administration.
“The 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 reports,” a CIA spokesperson said Saturday in a statement, adding that “the CIA continues to assess that the research-related and natural origin scenarios of the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
The agency had previously not determined whether COVID-19 was caused by a laboratory accident or spread from animals.
Beijing on Monday urged the United States to “stop politicizing and exploiting the issue of origin tracing.”
Mao said Washington should “stop smearing and shifting the blame to other countries (and) should address the legitimate concerns of the international community as soon as possible.”
