The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the coronavirus pandemic likely originated in a laboratory, according to an assessment released Saturday that points the finger at China even as it acknowledges that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusions.
This 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 on Saturday on the orders of John Ratcliffe, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, and who was sworn in as director on Thursday.
The precise results indicate 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 is that the evidence is incomplete, inconclusive or contradictory.
Previous reports on assets Covid-19 They are divided over whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory, perhaps accidentally, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is unlikely to settle the debate. In fact, intelligence officials say the problem may never be resolved, due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities.
The CIA “continues to assess that scenarios relevant to the research and natural origin of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency wrote in a statement about its new assessment.
Rather than new evidence, the conclusion was based on new analyzes of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific characteristics, and the work and conditions of virology laboratories in China.
Lawmakers have put pressure on US spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which has led to lockdowns, economic turmoil and millions of deaths. It’s a question with major domestic and geopolitical implications as the world continues to grapple with the legacy of the pandemic.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Saturday that he was “pleased that the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the lab leak theory is the most plausible explanation” and praised Ratcliffe for his efforts. Declassification of the evaluation
“The most important thing now is to make China pay the price for unleashing a plague on the world,” Cotton said in a statement.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Chinese authorities have in the past dismissed speculation about the origins of Covid as unhelpful and politically motivated.
While the origin of the virus remains unknown, scientists believe the most likely hypothesis is that it spread in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting other species, perhaps raccoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. On the other hand, the infection was transmitted to humans who handled these animals or slaughtered them in a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.
But some official investigations raised the question of whether the virus had leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan. Two years ago, a Department of Energy report concluded that a laboratory leak was the most likely cause, although that report also expressed low confidence in that finding.
That same year, Christopher Wray, then director of the FBI, said his agency believed the virus “most likely” spread after escaping from a laboratory.
Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, said he favored a lab leak scenario as well.
“A lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence and common sense,” Ratcliffe said in 2023.
The CIA said it would continue to evaluate any new information that could change its assessment.
