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The CIA has concluded that Covid-19 likely started as a leak from a laboratory in China in a new assessment of the origins of the pandemic that killed millions.
The US intelligence agency said it concluded “with low confidence” that the Covid-19 virus leaked from the research facility, reversing its earlier position that there was insufficient information to reach a conclusion.
“The CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related source of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural source based on the available body of reports,” the agency said in a statement Saturday.
“The CIA continues to assess that both the research-related and natural origin scenarios for the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
The US intelligence community – which is made up of 18 agencies – has been evaluating the source of Covid-19 for the past four years to determine whether the virus emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan or whether it leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. in Chinese cities.
The CIA joins the FBI and the Department of Energy in concluding that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan. But it said it had “low confidence in this judgment” and would “continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reports or open-source information” that could change its assessment.
The new assessment was released just days after John Ratcliffe was sworn in as CIA director.
In an interview with Breitbart News after being confirmed as President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the intelligence agency, Ratcliffe said he believes intelligence and common sense “indicate that the source of Covid was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology” and will confirm. That “organization that people are aware of [CIA] Going to get off the sidelines”.
A US official said CIA chief Bill Barnes during the Biden administration asked the CIA team to assess the evidence to take a position on the origin of Covid-19, but did not specify the outcome.
Barnes’ directive came as Jake Sullivan, who served as national security adviser, ordered the intelligence community to take another look at the origins of the pandemic as the Biden team prepares to leave office.
The US official insisted that the CIA revised its assessment before Ratcliffe was sworn in as the new director.
“I have said from the beginning that Covid probably originated in labs in Wuhan. Tom Cotton, the Republican head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Communist China covered it up and the liberal media covered it for them.
“I am pleased that the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the lab-leak theory is the most plausible explanation for the origin of Covid, and I commend Director Ratcliffe for fulfilling his commitment to publish this conclusion. Now, the most important thing is to pay China to spread the epidemic in the world.”
The Chinese embassy in the US did not respond to a request for comment.
The new CIA assessment change comes just a week after Trump held his first phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since at least 2021. Many foreign policy experts, however, had expected Trump to take a tougher stance on China — particularly on trade — in his first. Weeks in office, the president has so far held off on taking any tough action against Beijing.
In an interview with Fox News this week, Trump said that while the tariffs gave him “tremendous power” over China, he “would rather not use it.”
He signed an executive order delaying the deadline for TikTok’s Chinese owner to remove the popular video app to avoid a US ban.
