Washington According to an assessment issued on Saturday, the CIA now believes the virus that caused the COVID-19 epidemic most likely came from a laboratory. The document blames China, although the spy agency admits that it is not entirely certain in its own findings.
The report was finished at the request of former CIA Director William Burns and the Biden administration, and the conclusion is not the product of any fresh intelligence. John Ratcliffe, President Donald Trump’s choice to head the agency, was sworn in as director on Thursday, and he ordered its declassification and release on Saturday.
The nuanced conclusion implies that the agency thinks a lab origin is more likely than a natural origin given the weight of the evidence. However, the agency’s assessment gives this conclusion a low degree of confidence, indicating that the evidence is insufficient, ambiguous, or contradicting.
There has been disagreement in previous accounts regarding the origins of COVID-19 regarding whether the virus originated naturally or possibly accidentally in a Chinese laboratory. The debate is unlikely to be resolved by the new assessment. According to intelligence officials, the issue might never be resolved because Chinese authorities are not cooperating.
In a statement regarding its updated assessment, CIA stated that it still believes that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic are still likely.
The finding was based on new intelligence studies of the virus’s scientific characteristics, its spread, and the operations and circumstances of China’s virology labs rather than on new evidence.
Lawmakers have pressed American intelligence services for additional details regarding the virus’s origins, which resulted in lockdowns, economic disruption, and millions of fatalities. As the world continues to struggle with the pandemic’s legacy, it’s a question with important domestic and international ramifications.
The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, expressed his satisfaction on Saturday that CIA came to the conclusion that the lab-leak theory is the most likely explanation in the closing days of the Biden administration. He also praised Ratcliffe for declassifying the assessment.
Making China pay for bringing a plague to the world is now the most crucial thing, Cotton stated in a statement.
Messages asking for comment were not immediately answered by China’s embassy in Washington. In the past, Chinese officials have rejected conjecture regarding the origins of COVID as politically driven and useless.
Although the virus’s origin is still unknown, experts believe the most plausible theory is that, like many coronaviruses, it first spread among bats before infecting another species, most likely bamboo rats, racoon dogs, or civet cats. The sickness then spread to people who handled or killed those animals at a Wuhan market, where the first human cases were reported in late November 2019.
However, the question of whether the virus escaped from a Wuhan facility has been brought up by certain government investigators. The Energy Department found two years ago that a lab leak was the most likely cause, but the report also stated that it was not confident in the conclusion.
In the same year, Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI at the time, stated that his organization thought the virus probably spread after escaping from a laboratory.
Ratcliffe has stated that he too supports the lab leak scenario. Ratcliffe was the director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term.
Ratcliffe stated in 2023 that the only theory backed by intellect, science, and common sense is the lab leak.
The CIA stated that it will keep an eye out for any fresh data that might alter its opinion.
