CIA changes its mind about COVID-19 causes - NYT
CIA admits coronavirus leak from Chinese lab (photo: Getty Images)
The US Central Intelligence Agency has changed its opinion on the causes of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. US intelligence is now leaning towards the coronavirus leakage from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan, The New York Times reports.
US intelligence has been saying for years that it does not have enough information to draw a clear conclusion about how the COVID-19 pandemic originated. There are two main theories: the virus emerging naturally in a market in Wuhan or an accidental leak from a Wuhan research laboratory.
But, according to the NYT, this week the CIA issued a new assessment in which analysts are leaning toward the lab leak theory. The change in position, unnamed officials told the newspaper, is not due to any new intelligence. However, the analysis is partly based on a study of conditions in high-security laboratories in Wuhan before the pandemic.
At the same time, the CIA spokesperson said that the other theory (about the market) remains likely, and therefore the agency will continue to evaluate any new reliable intelligence information that becomes available.
The new CIA director, John Ratcliffe, who the Senate has recently confirmed, has long favored the lab leak theory, but according to the NYT, the change in the administration's position is not related to this. The new assessment has been in the works for some time, officials said.
However, another official told the NYT that it was Ratcliffe who decided to declassify and release the new analysis. However, the agency made the new assessment with a "low level of confidence," which means that the available intelligence information is fragmented and incomplete.
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, began in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It quickly spread around the world, and on March 11, 2020, the WHO declared it a pandemic.
Large-scale vaccination, which began in 2021, helped contain the spread of the virus. In May 2023, the WHO declared the emergency over, officially ending a pandemic that had lasted more than three years.
At the end of December last year, WHO called on China to open up data on COVID-19 to establish the origin of the virus. The organization believes that this is both a moral and scientific obligation of China.
