CIA Analysts Believed COVID-19 Came From Lab, Leaders Buried Assessments: Whistleblower

James O' Erdman III, a senior CIA operations officer, disclosed details during testimony on Capitol Hill.

CIA whistleblower James Erdman III, a senior operations officer, arrives to a hearing with the Senate Homeland Security Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, on May 13, 2026. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

CIA experts believed COVID-19 likely came from a laboratory in China, but leaders in the agency changed those conclusions, a senior CIA officer told the Senate on May 13.

As early as 2020, many people within the CIA assessed that the most likely origin of COVID-19 was the high-level laboratory in Wuhan, China, where the first cases appeared in 2019, James Erdman III, a senior CIA operations officer, said in Washington in testimony to a Senate committee.