NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Central Intelligence Agency has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely to have emerged from a lab than from nature, an agency spokesperson said on Saturday.
The agency had for years said it could not conclude whether COVID-19 was the result of a lab incident or originated in nature. But in the final weeks of the Biden administration, former CIA Director William Burns asked CIA analysts and scientists to make a clear determination, stressing the pandemic’s historical significance, according to a senior U.S. official.
The CIA says it has “low confidence” in its assessment that a “research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely” and notes in its statement that both scenarios – lab origin and natural origin – remain plausible.
It was unclear the extent to which the agency has collected new intelligence on COVID-19’s origins and whether that new evidence was used to formulate the latest assessment.
China’s government says it supports and has taken part in research to determine COVID-19’s origin, and has accused Washington of politicizing the matter, especially because of efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate.
A Chinese embassy spokesperson called the CIA’s conclusion “misleading” and not based on “substantial evidence.”
“The source of the virus is a complex scientific issue, and scientists and experts should find the answer through rigorous and meticulous scientific research, rather than being judged by politicians,” said the spokesperson in a written comment to Reuters on Sunday.
Beijing has said claims that a laboratory leak likely caused the pandemic have no credibility.
In an interview with Breitbart following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on Friday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said one of his first priorities was getting his agency to make a public assessment on the pandemic’s origins.
“That’s a day-one thing for me,” he said. “I’ve been on record as you know in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
(Reporting by Erin Banco; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Rod Nickel)
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