China on Monday dismissed the possibility that the virus that caused COVID-19 leaked from a lab, after the CIA said it now favors the so-called lab leak theory over natural transmission.

“It is extremely unlikely the pandemic was caused by a lab leak,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters. “This has been widely recognized by the international community, including the scientific community,” she said.

Mao added that the conclusion was reached by the joint China-WHO expert team from field visits.

Mao did not say where the virus originated, only that any judgment should be made by scientists

The CIA on Saturday said it believes the virus came from a Chinese lab. The new assessment, though it was made with low confidence, dumped new fuel on the debate over the origins of COVID-19.

"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. CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” an agency spokesperson told The Hill.

"We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA's assessment."

The swift release of the conclusion came just days after new CIA Director John Ratcliffe was sworn in.

It also comes after the Biden administration ordered........

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