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The CIA has concluded that COVID-19 probably began as a leak from a lab in China in a new assessment of the origins of the pandemic that killed millions.
The US intelligence agency said it concluded with “low confidence” that the COVID-19 virus had emerged from the research facility, in a reversal of its previous position that there was insufficient information to reach a conclusion.
“The CIA assesses with low confidence that an origin related to the research of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting,” the agency said in a statement Saturday.
“The CIA continues to assess that research-related origin scenarios and the natural origin of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
The U.S. Intelligence Community—which is made up of 18 agencies—has been evaluating the origins of COVID-19 for the past four years to determine whether the virus emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan or whether it emanated from the city’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. Chinese.
The CIA joins the FBI and the Department of Energy in concluding that the virus originated in the Wuhan Laboratory. But she said she had “low confidence in this judgment” and would “continue to evaluate any new credible intelligence reporting or open source information” that might change its assessment.
The new assessment was made public just days after John Ratcliffe was sworn in as CIA director.
In an interview with Breitbart News after he was confirmed as President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the intelligence agency, Ratcliffe said he believed intelligence and common sense “dictate that the origin of Covid was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology” and would ensure that “the public is aware that the agency (CIA) is going to get off the hook.”
A US official said Bill Burns, the head of the CIA during the Biden administration, had told the CIA team evaluating the evidence to take a position on the origin of COVID-19, but did not dictate the outcome.
Burns’ directive came as Jake Sullivan, who served as national security adviser, ordered the intelligence community to take another look at the origins of the pandemic as the Biden team prepared to leave office.
The US official stressed that the CIA had revised its assessment before Ratcliffe was sworn in as the new director.
“I’ve said from the beginning that Covid likely originated in the Wuhan Labs. Communist China covered it up and the liberal media covered it up for them,” said Tom Cotton, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“I am pleased that the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the Lab-Leak theory is the most plausible explanation for the origin of Covid, and I commend Director Ratcliffe for fulfilling his promise to issue this conclusion. Now , the most important thing is that China pays to unleash a scourge on the world.”
The Chinese Embassy in the US did not respond to a request for comment.
The new CIA assessment change comes just over a week after Trump held his first phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since at least 2021. While many foreign policy experts had expected Trump to take taking a hard line on China – particularly on trade – in his first week in office, the President has so far refrained from taking any tough action against Beijing.
In an interview with Fox News this week, Trump said that while the tariffs gave him “tremendous power” over China, he would “rather not have to use it.”
He also signed an executive order delaying the deadline for Tiktok’s Chinese owner to divert the popular video app to avoid a US ban
