The Central Intelligence Agency said on Saturday that it changed its previous evaluations and concluded that it is likely that the COVID-19 virus leaked a Chinese laboratory before it became a global pandemic, but added that the agency had “little confidence” In his judgment.
“The CIA evaluates with little confidence that an origin of the Covid-19 Pandemic related to the research is more likely that a natural origin based on the set of reports available,” said a CIA spokesman in a statement. “The CIA continues to evaluate that both the scenarios of natural origin and those related to the research of the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
The spokesman added that the agency has “little confidence in this trial” and will continue to evaluate any new intelligence or relevant information report.
For years, the CIA has said that it was not clear if the Covid pandemic arose from the human exhibition to an infected animal or an event in a research laboratory in China.
American intelligence agencies and other government departments have been divided over the origins of the virus. The FBI and the Department of Energy have said that the virus was likely to be the result of a laboratory leak, while other agencies evaluated that natural human exposure to an infected animal was the most likely scenario. The CIA had been agnostic so far.
The evaluation of the CIA was not based on new intelligence but that analysts reviewed existing information, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. The review was ordered in the last weeks of the Biden Administration and was completed before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, said the source.
The outgoing director of the CIA, William Burns, had told analysts that instead of remaining neutral about the different theories about Covid’s origins, they should take a position, although he did not express preference on what theory to support, the source said.
The New York Times first reported on the circumstances of the new review.
The new director of the Espionage Agency, John Ratcliffe, nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed in his position by the Senate this week, approved the declassification of the new evaluation, said the source. Ratcliffe has long sustained that the virus is most likely to emerge from a leak at the Wuhan Virology Institute.
Ratcliffe told Breitbart News in an interview published on Friday that he wanted the CIA to abandon its neutral position on the origins of the virus and “stay on the sidelines.”
“One of the things that I have spoken a lot is how to address China’s threat on several fronts, and that goes back to why a million Americans died and why the central intelligence agency has been on the sidelines for five years. Not doing an evaluation of the origins of COVID, ”said Ratcliffe. “That is something that happens from day to me.”
“I have recorded, as you know, in saying that I think our intelligence, our science and our common sense really dictate that Covid’s origins were a leak in the Wuhan Virology Institute,” he said. “But the CIA has not done that evaluation or at least has not done it publicly. So I will concentrate on that and analyze the intelligence and make sure that the public is aware that the agency will remain on the sidelines. ”
Ratcliffe, who served as National Intelligence Director during Trump’s first mandate, said he would ensure that the president is armed with the best intelligence available when he tries with China.
“While President Trump deals with [Chinese] President XI [Jinping]He needs to be armed with the best intelligence and be able to talk about China in a way that if he caused or contributed to the death of a million Americans, the president needs to be armed with that, ”said Ratcliffe.
The Wuhan Virology Institute has faced questions about its previous research on the Murciéla Coronavirus and alleged security failures. The COVID-19 virus was first detected in Wuhan in 2019.
China has accused the United States of trying to “defame” Beijing with what calls false accusations about the origins of the virus and has insisted that it has been transparent about the outbreak.
