Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what the 2024 US elections mean for Washington and the world
The CIA has concluded that Covid-19 likely began with a leak from a Chinese laboratory in a new assessment of the origins of the pandemic that has killed millions.
The US intelligence agency said it concluded with a “low level of confidence” that the Covid-19 virus had escaped from the research center, a change from its previous position that there was no did not have enough information to reach a conclusion.
“The CIA estimates with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on all available reports,” the agency said. in a press release on Saturday.
“The CIA continues to assess that the research and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible. »
The US intelligence community – made up of 18 agencies – has been evaluating the origin of Covid-19 for four years to determine whether the virus emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan or whether it leaked from the Institute of Wuhan virology. in the Chinese city.
The CIA joins the FBI and the Department of Energy in concluding that the virus came from the Wuhan lab. But he said he had “low confidence in that judgment” and would “continue to evaluate any new credible intelligence reports or open source information that becomes available” that might change his 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 being confirmed as President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the intelligence agency, Ratcliffe said he believes intelligence and common sense “dictate that the origins of Covid were a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology” and would ensure that “the public is aware that the agency [CIA] will stay on the sidelines.”
A US official said Bill Burns, CIA chief under the Biden administration, asked the CIA team assessing the evidence to take a position on the origin of Covid-19, but did not not dictate the outcome.
Burns’ directive came as Jake Sullivan, who served as national security adviser, ordered the intelligence community to re-examine the origins of the pandemic as the Biden team prepared to leave office.
The US official stressed that the CIA revised its assessment before Ratcliffe was sworn in as the new director.
“I said from the beginning that Covid probably came from the Wuhan laboratories. Communist China covered it up and the liberal media covered it up, said Tom Cotton, 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 origins of Covid, and I commend Director Ratcliffe for keeping his promise to publish this conclusion. Today, the most important thing is to make China pay for the scourge that is hitting the world.”
The Chinese Embassy in the United States did not respond to a request for comment.
The new change in the CIA’s assessment comes just over a week after Trump had his first phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since at least 2021. While many foreign policy experts expected As Trump takes a hard line on China – particularly on trade – in his first week in office, the president has so far been reluctant to take 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 extending the deadline for TikTok’s Chinese owner to divest the popular video app to avoid a ban in the United States.
