The CIA now believes the Covid-19 pandemic is “more likely” to have arisen from a lab leak in China than from animals.
It follows the release of a new analysis initiated under the Biden administration at a previous request Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns.
For years, the CIA said it was unclear whether… Covid-19 It was the result of a laboratory accident or of natural origin.
Her most recent assessment points his finger China Although she admitted to having “low confidence” in her own conclusion, noting that both scenarios – laboratory and natural origin – are still plausible.
The findings are not based on new evidence, but a new analysis of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific characteristics, and the work and conditions of virology laboratories in China.
“The CIA continues to maintain its research- and nature-related origin scenarios in the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible,” the agency said in a statement.
The report was declassified and released on Saturday on the orders of US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US spy agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn in on Thursday as director.
He said one of his first priorities is to get his agency to conduct a public assessment on the origins of the pandemic.
“This is a one-day thing for me,” he told Breitbart News.
“I’ve been on record, you know, in saying that I think our intelligence, our science and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of Covid were a leak in Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Previous reports on the origins of the coronavirus have been divided on whether it emerged from a Chinese laboratory, perhaps accidentally, or whether it arises naturally.
Read more from Sky News:
Holocaust survivor ‘jumped off the death train’
Trump plans to call Starmer within 24 hours
In March 2021, a report by the World Health Organization concluded that the most likely origin of Covid-19 was Transmission from bats to humans Across unspecified intermediate animal species.
The possibility of Covid-19 escaping from a virology laboratory in Wuhan – the epicenter of the initial quake – was considered “extremely unlikely”, although it has not been completely ruled out.
She rejected the theory that the coronavirus was intentionally engineered or released by a laboratory.
In May 2023, a senior former Chinese government scientist said The possibility that Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese laboratory should not be ruled out.
China’s government says it supports it and has been involved in research to determine the origin of the virus, and has accused Washington of politicizing the matter.
Beijing said claims that a lab leak likely sparked the epidemic had no credibility.
The CIA said it would continue to evaluate any new information that could change its assessment.