Politics

John Ratcliffe Testifies Lab Leak Is Only ‘Credibly Supported’ Explanation For COVID-19

[Screenshot Twitter Select Subcommittee On The Coronavirus Pandemic]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe testified Tuesday that the COVID-19 virus leaked from the Wuhan lab.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently concluded with “low” and “moderate confidence” that the COVID-19 virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The lab-leak theory had long been deemed a conspiracy theory.

Ratcliffe testified to the matter before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

“My informed assessment as a personal with as much access as anyone to our governments intelligence during the initial year of the pandemic has been and continues to be that a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science, and by common sense,” Ratcliffe testified. “From a view inside the NIC, if our intelligence and evidence supporting a lab leak theory was placed side by side with our intelligence and evidence pointing to a natural origins or spillover theory, the lab leak’s side of the ledger would be long, convincing, and even overwhelming, while the spillover side would be nearly empty and tenuous.”

“Were this a trial, a preponderance of circumstantial evidence provided by our intelligence would compel a jury finding of guilt to an accusation that coronavirus research in the Wuhan labs was responsible for the pandemic.” (RELATED: ‘Let Me Finish My Answer’: Kirby Pushes Back Against Doocy On Origins Of COVID)

President Joe Biden recently signed the bipartisan COVID-19 Origins Act of 2023, which will declassify all intelligence concerning the origins of the virus.

Former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield had also previously testified before the committee, pointing out three red flags which he believes point to the lab leak theory. Redfield outlined how the lab “deleted the sequences” in September of 2019, “changed the command and control from civilian control to the military control” and “let a contractor redo the ventilation system in that laboratory.”