Germany's Spies: COVID Likely Started in a Lab

Germany's spy agency is in sync with the CIA in regard to the origins of COVID: Both think it likely originated in a lab in China. After its own analysis, Germany's BND foreign intelligence service thinks there's an 80% to 90% chance that the virus accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, reports the BBC, citing German media reports. The assessment concluded that researchers there were conducting risky experiments in which viruses from nature get manipulated, per DW.com.

Those experiments, combined with lax security measures, likely resulted in the accidental leak, according to the BND. Its analysis was conducted back in 2020 but has only now been made public. China has consistently denied the allegations. The development comes after the CIA in January concluded that the virus was "more likely" to have come from a lab than from an animal. (More COVID-19 stories.)