CIA has new assessment on origin of Covid-19

SARS-CoV-2 under microscope

The New York Times reported on January 25 that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has just released a new assessment, in which analysts favor the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 - the virus that causes the Covid-19 pandemic - originated in a laboratory.

Over the years, the CIA has said it has not had enough information to conclude whether the Covid-19 pandemic originated naturally in a farmers market in Wuhan, China, or was accidentally leaked from a laboratory there.

The latest change is based on “available reporting,” though any of those theories are possible, a CIA spokesman said.

John Ratcliffe, the new director of the CIA, has long supported the lab leak hypothesis. According to him, this is important intelligence that needs to be understood and has an impact on US-China relations.

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He has long believed that SARS-CoV-2 most likely originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Officials said the CIA has not changed its stance under new leadership, as the assessment has been underway for some time.

In the final weeks of former President Joe Biden's administration, former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan directed a new classified review into the origins of the pandemic.

As part of that assessment, the agency’s previous director, William Burns, told analysts they needed to take a stance on the origins of Covid-19, a senior US intelligence official said, though he did not say which theory they should accept.

Another senior US official said the decision to declassify and release the new analysis was Mr. Ratcliffe's.

Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) called on China to provide more data to understand the origins of the disease. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning later asserted that the country had shared information about Covid-19 “without holding anything back.”

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cia-co-danh-gia-moi-ve-nguon-goc-covid-19-185250126072012998.htm