The CIA has said for years that it did not have enough information to conclude whether the COVID-19 pandemic emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan, China, or from an accidental leak at a research lab there.

But the agency issued a new assessment this past week, with analysts saying they now favor the lab theory.

There is no new intelligence behind the agency’s shift, officials said. Rather, it is based on the same evidence it has been chewing on for months.