The CIA now says that the Corona virus has probably originated from a laboratory leakage but has “low confidence” in its evaluation

Central Intelligence Agency now believes The virus is responsible for the Kofid-19 It is likely that it will be a laboratory, according to the evaluation issued on Saturday indicating the fingers of accusation to China even with the recognition that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its conclusions.

This result is not the result of any new intelligence information, and the report has been completed at the request of the Biden Administration and former CIA director William Burns. The secrecy was raised and published on Saturday on the orders of President Trump’s choice to lead the agency, John Ratcliffe, who was sworn on Thursday as a director.

“The CIA holds with low confidence that the assets associated with the Coffeted-19 pandemic is more likely than the natural original based on the available reports set. CIA continues to evaluate the natural and natural scenarios of Kovid-19. A spokesman for the agency said in a statement:” still September 19, “noting that” they will continue to evaluate any reliable new intelligence reports available or open source information that can change the evaluation of the CIA. “

Jake Sullivan, the National Security Adviser to the Biden Administration, ordered a secret review in December of the American Intelligence that was collected on Kovid-19’s assets, according to a current US official and a former US official to CBS News. Sullivan formed a committee of external experts to evaluate intelligence information and asked the intelligence community to review its data and find a result. The officials of the CBS News network said there is no new “damaging” evidence, but rather a low -confidence assessment depends on the same data. Burns ordered the review before the CIA leaving, citing great attention from political decision -makers.

The exact results indicate that the agency believes that the overall evidence makes the laboratory asset more likely than the natural origin. But the agency’s evaluation gives a low degree of confidence in this conclusion, indicating that the evidence is incomplete, inconclusive or contradictory.

Previous reports on the assets of the Corona Virus (Covid-19). They have been divided on whether the Corona virus has come out of a Chinese laboratory, perhaps by mistake, or whether it has originated naturally. The new evaluation is unlikely to resolve the controversy. In fact, intelligence officials say that the problem may never be solved, due to a Chinese authorities are not cooperating.

Instead of new evidence, the conclusion was based on new analyzes of intelligence information about the spread of the virus, its scientific characteristics, the work and conditions of virus laboratories in China.

Legislators pressed US spying agencies to obtain more information about the assets of the virus, which led to closure, economic turmoil and millions of deaths. It is a question that has great local and geopolitical effects while the world continues its struggle with the legacy of the epidemic.

Republican Senator Tom Couton from Arkansas, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Saturday that “in the recent days of the Biden Administration, the CIA had concluded that the theory of laboratory leaks is the most acceptable interpretation” and praised Ratcliffe to lift the secrecy from him. Evaluation.

“The most important thing now is to make China pay the price of spreading plague in the world,” Cotton said in a statement.

The Chinese authorities have refused speculation about the origins of the Corona virus, describing them as unhelpful and politically driven. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in the United States said on Saturday that the CIA report has no credibility.

“We are strongly opposed to politicization and stigmatizing the source of the virus, and we call everyone again to respect the science and stay away from conspiracy theories,” Embassy spokesman Leo Benjio said in a statement sent via e -mail to the Associated Press.

While the origin of the virus is still unknown, scientists believe that the most likely hypothesis is that it has spread in bats, such as many coronary viruses, before injuring other types, perhaps raccoon dogs, cushion cats or bamboo mice. On the other hand, the infection moved to humans who deal with these animals or slaughter them in a market in Wuhan, where it was the first Human cases appeared in late November 2019.

However, some official investigations raised a question about whether the virus had leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan. Two years ago, a report issued by the Ministry of Energy concluded that labia is the most likely reason, although this report also expressed lower confidence in this result.

In the same year, the then director of the FBI, Christopher Ray, said that his agency believes that the virus has been “probably” after escaping from the laboratory.

Ratcliffe, who served as director of National Intelligence during the first period of Trump, said he prefers the scenario of laboratory leakage as well.

“The laboratory leakage is the only theory that science, intelligence and common sense support,” Ratcliffe said in 2023.

The CIA said it would continue to evaluate any new information that could change its evaluation.

Margaret Brennan

It contributed to this report.