CIA Director John Ratcliffe warned his agents of "changes" to come under his leadership in a memo obtained by Fox News Digital.

The CIA has changed its assessment on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, now favoring the lab leak theory. But some worry this could be an indication of politicization.

Five years on from the start of the pandemic, Donald Trump’s new CIA director has weighed into the contentious debate saying a lab leak was “most likely”.

The Central Intelligence Agency previously said that two explanations were plausible, a lab leak or a natural source for the virus. Yet under new agency director John Ratcliffe, the CIA has changed its view, which is now in line with that of the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The virus that started the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a lab in China, the CIA said in a new assessment, though it has no conclusive evidence.

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,

The CIA on Saturday offered a new assessment on the origin of the Covid outbreak, saying the coronavirus is "more likely" to have leaked from a Chinese lab than to have come from animals. But the intelligence agency cautioned it had "low confidence" in this determination.

The intelligence agency says it has a “low confidence” in its new finding, but this is further than it has ever gone in pinpointing the origin of a virus that killed millions worldwide.

Not a speck of evidence has emerged showing that the COVID virus leaked from a Chinese lab. So why does a just-released CIA statement claim that it did? Blame politics.

Newly-confirmed CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News the decision to release a Biden-era analysis favoring the COVID-19 lab leak theory is a step toward transparency.