CIA believes that Covid probably comes from a laboratory, but the agency has low confidence in its own finding

WASHINGTON (AP) – The CIA now believes that the virus is responsible for the Covid-19-Pandemie Probably from a laboratory, according to an assessment released on Saturday that points your finger at China, even while it acknowledges that the spy agency has “little trust” in its own conclusion.

The finding is not the result of a new information and the report was completed on behalf of the Biden administration and former CIA director William Burns. It was declassified and released on Saturday by order of President Donald Trump’s choice around the agency, John Ratcliffe, in Leiden, who was sworn in as a director on Thursday.

The nuanced finding suggests that the agency believes that the totality of evidence makes a laboratory origin more likely than a natural origin. But the assessment of the agency allocates a low degree of trust to this conclusion, which suggests that the evidence is deficient, not decisive or contradictory.

Previous reports about the origin of COVID-19 have split About whether the coronavirus originated from a Chinese lab, possibly by accident, or whether it originated naturally. The new assessment will probably not arrange the debate. Intelligence officials even say it will never be resolved due to a lack of cooperation between the Chinese authorities.

“CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 Pandemie remain plausible,” wrote a spokesperson for the agency in a statement about the assessment of the agency.

Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on new analyzes of intelligence about the spread of the virus, the scientific characteristics and the work and circumstances of Chinese virology laboratories.

The legislators have put pressure on the spy agencies of America for more information about the origin of the virus, which led to lockdowns, economic revolution 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 it infects another type, probably raccoonCivet cats or bambooats. In turn, the infection spread to people who handle or succeeded those animals on a market in Wuhan, where the first Human Affairs published at the end of November 2019.

However, some official investigations have asked whether the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. Two years ago a report from the Department of Energy concluded that a Lablak was the most likely origin, although that report also pronounced low trust In the finding.

Ratcliffe, who served as director of National Intelligence during the first term of Trump, has said that he is in favor of the lab scenario.

“The Lablek is the only theory supported by science, intelligence and common sense,” said Ratcliffe in 2023.

The CIA “will continue to evaluate all available credible new intelligence report or open-source information that could change the assessment of CIA,” said the agency’s spokesperson.