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WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA now believes the virus is responsible COVID-19 Pandemic probably originates from a laboratory, according to an assessment that was released on Saturday that Pointing the finger at China Even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.
The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the request of the Biden administration and former CIA Director William Burns. It was declassified and released Saturday on orders from President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in Thursday as director.
The nuanced finding suggests that the agency believes that the totality of the evidence makes a laboratory origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency’s assessment assigns a low level of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting that the evidence is flawed, inconsistent, or contradictory.
Previous reports on the origins of Covid-19 have divided whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory, potentially by mistake, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is unlikely to settle the debate. In fact, intelligence officials say it may never be solved due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities.
“The CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios for the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible,” an agency spokesman wrote in a statement about the agency’s assessment.
Rather than new evidence, the conclusion was based on fresh analyzes of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific properties, and the work and conditions of China’s virology laboratories.
Lawmakers have pressed America’s spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic upheaval and millions of deaths.
While the origin of the virus remains unknown, researchers believe the most likely hypothesis is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting another species, likely racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. In turn, the infection spread to people who handled or slaughtered these animals in a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.
However, some official investigations have raised the question of whether the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. Two years ago, a Department of Energy report concluded that a laboratory leak was the most likely origin, although that report also expressed low confidence in the finding.
Ratcliffe, who served as Director of National Intelligence in Trump’s first term, has said he favors the lab leak scenario.
“The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence and common sense,” Ratcliffe said in 2023.
The CIA “will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open source information that may change the CIA’s assessment,” the agency spokesman said.
