The CIA has changed its assessment about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, now favoring the laboratory leak theory. Under its new manager John RatcliffeThe agency issued an assessment on the origins of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The review was ordered by former President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, near the end of Biden’s time in office.
Analysts made that assessment with low confidence even though former CIA Director Bill Burns, who remained uncertain about the origins, told the agency it needed to look at existing evidence again and side with one side or the other.
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, as members of a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus visit the institute in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province on February 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
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The agency has maintained for years that it does not have sufficient intelligence to conclude whether this is the case Covid arose In a laboratory or wet market in Wuhan, China. Despite the new evaluation favoring laboratory infusion, there was no indication of new evidence.
“The CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin for the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the body of available reports. The CIA continues to evaluate natural and natural origin scenarios for COVID-19. A CIA spokesperson told Fox News: “The Covid-19 pandemic is still plausible.”
“We have low confidence in this judgment and will continue to evaluate any available new credible intelligence reports or open source information that could change the CIA’s assessment.”
Ratcliffe, who was confirmed Thursday, has been a long-time supporter of the lab leak theory. In an interview with Breitbart, Ratcliffe framed the Covid asset valuation as part of a broader strategy “to counter the threat from China.”
He also said he wanted the CIA to “step away from the sidelines” and take a stand.
John Ratcliffe appears at his Senate intelligence confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill on January 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)
In a March 2023 In a Fox News article co-written by Cliff Sims, Ratcliffe accused the Biden administration of trying to keep the growing consensus around the lab leak theory quiet by suppressing “what clearly assessable intelligence they have.”
He also questioned the idea that the CIA did not have enough evidence to reach a conclusion about the origins of the virus.
“The CIA is the premier spy agency in the world. Its scope is unparalleled, its ability to obtain information is unparalleled. And yet, here we are now three and a half years later, and there are ample public reports that the CIA does not have adequate information.” “Sufficient information to make an assessment,” the March 2023 article says.
A sign about COVID-19 testing is displayed outside a COVID-19 testing site as a health worker collects test tubes in Wheeling, Illinois, December 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Nam Wai. Ha)
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In the same article, Ratcliffe and Sims rejected the idea that the virus emerged naturally, claiming that there was a “complete absence of scientific intelligence or evidence” to suggest that conclusion.
When he testified before the House subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic in April 2023, Ratcliffe said the lab leak theory was “the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, science and common sense.”
