The CIA has revealed that coronavirus may have originated from a lab in China following an assessment of evidence. The report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration
The CIA believes that coronavirus probably originated from a Chinese laboratory, it has been revealed.
A spokesperson for the agency shared the suspicion on Saturday, despite the evidence not being new. “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 body of reporting,” they said in the announcement on Saturday.
They added: “CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible.” Earlier reports on how the virus began left experts divided on whether it was manmade or natural. Sadly, the new assessment is not likely to settle the debate.
Despite pointing the finger at China, they acknowledged that the US spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.
The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was completed at the behest of the Biden administration and former CIA director William Burns. It was declassified and released on Saturday on the orders of US President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the agency. It comes after John Ratcliffe was sworn in on Thursday as the director of the CIA.
However, the agency’s assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive, or contradictory. Earlier reports on the origins of Covid-19 were split over whether the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese lab, potentially by mistake, or whether it arose naturally. The new assessment is not likely to settle the debate.
In fact, intelligence officials say it may never be resolved, due to a lack of cooperation from Chinese authorities. Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on fresh analyses of intelligence about the spread of the virus, its scientific properties and the work and conditions of China’s virology labs. Legislators have pressured America’s spy agencies for more information about the origins of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic upheaval and millions of deaths.
While the origin of the virus remains unknown, scientists think the most likely hypothesis is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses, before infecting another species, probably racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats. In turn, the infection spread to humans handling or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.
Some official investigations, however, have raised the the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Two years ago a report by the US Department of Energy concluded a lab leak was the most likely origin, though that report also expressed low confidence in the finding.
Mr Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Mr Trump’s first term, has said he favours the lab leak scenario. “The lab leak is the only theory supported by science, intelligence, and common sense,” Mr Ratcliffe said in 2023. The CIA “will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA’s assessment,” the agency spokesperson said.
