The intelligence agency says it has ‘low confidence’ in the assessment and will continue to evaluate credible information.
The CIA has announced that it believes the COVID-19 pandemic is “highly likely” to have originated from a laboratory leak rather than a natural event.
The CIA’s assessment of “low confidence” comes as John Ratcliffe was sworn in as director of the top intelligence agency under United States President Donald Trump on Thursday.
“The CIA is evaluating whether both research-related and natural sources of the COVID-19 pandemic are plausible”, a spokesperson said on Saturday.
“We have little confidence in this decision and will continue to review any available reliable new intelligence reporting or open source information that may change the CIA’s assessment.”
US media have reported that the assessment was ordered under former US President Joe Biden’s administration and was completed before Ratcliffe took office.
Following the CIA announcement, three US agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Energy, have now publicly supported the theory that Covid-19 may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.
China’s embassy in Washington, DC, rejected the CIA’s assessment, saying it “draws misleading conclusions, smears China, and engages in framing”.
“It is still the old practice of political manipulation to trace the source and has no credibility. The source of the virus is a complex scientific problem and requires scientists and experts to answer it rigorously,” said embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu. It should be explored through rigorous scientific research, rather than decided by politicians.
“We strongly oppose the politicization and denigration of the source of the virus, and once again call on everyone to respect science and stay away from conspiracy theories.”
Liu added that China has “always adhered to the spirit of science, openness and transparency” and pointed to a 2021 joint WHO-China study that concluded that the leak at the lab was “highly unlikely”.
Four other US intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council have said they believe the virus likely emerged through natural transmission.
In an interview with Breitbart News on Friday, Ratcliffe said the outbreak of COVID would be a “one day” priority.
“I’ve been on the record as you know saying that I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictate that the origin of Covid was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But C The IA has not made that assessment or at least not made that assessment publicly,” Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, told the outlet.
“So I’m going to focus on that and look at the intelligence and make sure the public knows that the agency is going to get away with it.”
