New York:
The Central Intelligence Agency has ruled that the COVID-19 Pandemie “more likely” came from a laboratory than from nature, said a spokesperson for the service on Saturday.
For years, the agency said it could not conclude whether COVID-19 was the result of a laboratory incident or originated in nature. But in the last weeks of the Biden government, former CIA director William Burns CIA analysts and scientists asked to make a clear decision, emphasizing the historical significance of the pandemic, according to a high American officer.
The CIA says that she has “little trust” in her estimate that a “research-related origin of the COVID-19 Pandemie is more likely” and notes in its explanation that both scenarios-laboratory distress and natural origin-remain plausible.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
It was unclear to what extent the service has collected new information about the origin of COVID-19 and whether that new evidence has been used to formulate the latest assessment.
The Chinese government says it supports and participated in investigating the origin of COVID-19, and has accused Washington of politicizing the case, mainly because of the efforts of American intelligence services to investigate.
Beijing has said that claims that a laboratory leak has probably caused the pandemic is not credible.
In an interview with Breitbart after his confirmation by the US Senate on Friday, CIA director John Ratcliffe said that one of his first priorities was that his agency would make a public assessment of the origin of the pandemic.
“That's the first day for me,” he said. “As you know, I have said that I think our intelligence, our science and our common sense all really dictate that the origin of Covid was a leak. The Wuhan Institute for Virology. “
(Reporting by Erin Banco; Editors by Daniel Wallis)
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