CIA shifts assessment of covid origin, saying lab supply likely caused outbreak

The Central Intelligence Agency on Saturday said it has reversed its earlier assessments and has concluded that it is likely the Covid-19 virus that was leaked from a Chinese laboratory before it became a global pandemic, but added that the agency had ” low confidence” in his judgement.

“The CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available reporting body,” a CIA spokesman said in a statement. “The CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios for the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible.”

The spokesman added that the agency has “low confidence in this judgment” and will continue to evaluate any new intelligence reporting or relevant information.

For years, the CIA has said it was unclear whether the covid pandemic came out of human exposure to an infected animal or from an event at a research lab in China.

US intelligence agencies and other government departments have been divided over the origin of the virus. The FBI and the Energy Department have said it was likely the virus was the result of a laboratory leak, while other agencies assessed natural human exposure to an infected animal as the most likely scenario. The CIA had been agnostic until now.

The CIA’s assessment was not based on new intelligence, but on analysts reviewing existing information, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. The review was ordered in the closing weeks of the Biden administration and completed before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the source said.

Outgoing CIA director William Burns had told analysts that instead of remaining neutral on the various theories of Covid’s origins, they should take a position – although he did not express a preference for which theory to support, the source said.

The New York Times first reported the circumstances of the new review.

The new director of the spy agency, John Ratcliffe, who was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed to his post by the Senate this week, approved the declassification of the new assessment, the source said. Ratcliffe has long argued that the virus likely arose from a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Ratcliffe told Breitbart News in a interview Posted Friday that he wanted the CIA to drop its neutral stance on the origin of the virus and “step off the sidelines.”

“One of the things that I’ve talked about a lot is not making an assessment of the origin of Covid,” Ratcliffe said. “It’s a day-one thing for me.”

“I’ve been on the record, as you know, saying that I think our intelligence, our science and our common sense all really dictate that the origin of Covid was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, ” he said. “But the CIA has not made that assessment, or at least not made that assessment publicly. So I’m going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure the public is aware that the agency is going to step aside. “

Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, said he wanted to ensure the president is armed with the best intelligence available when dealing with China.

“As President Trump deals with (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping), he has to be armed with the very best intelligence and to be able to talk about China in a way that if they caused or contributed to the death of a million Americans, the President has to be armed with it,” Ratcliffe said.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has faced questions about its past research into Bat Coronaviruses and alleged safety lapses. The Covid-19 virus was first detected in Wuhan in 2019.

China has accused the United States of trying to “smear” Beijing with what it calls false allegations about the origin of the virus and has insisted it has been transparent about the outbreak.