CIA says yes, COVID could have been a lab leak

Here's the details. (Politico was the first to come up after the paywalled NYT.) And a heads-up RIGHT at the start.

For the #BlueAnon / #BlueMAGA claiming this is just because John Ratcliffe is now CIA head? Ahh, wrong! This was being worked on before Jan. 20. That said, the change of administrations prodded its release.

For the #MAGAts claiming the CIA said it "IS" a lab leak? Wrong! "Could have been" is not ≠ "is."

The tribalism extends elsewhere.

Richard Ebright, called out moderately by me once on Twitter for going beyond that into some sort of halfway conspiracy theory, has blocked me.

Now, the Politico piece isn't perfect; it passively-aggressively tries to debunk the lab leak idea.

The AP has more, and is better; it notes now-former FBI head Christopher Wray said in 2023 that it was "most likely" a lab leak.