The CIA has a new assessment of the origin of Covid-19

Sheet The New York Times On January 25, it was reported that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had just released a new assessment, in which analysts favored the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes the Covid-19 pandemic – originated. from the laboratory.

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

The latest change is based on “existing reporting agencies,” although either of those theories is possible, a CIA spokesman said.

Mr. John Ratcliffe, the new director of the CIA, has long supported the theory that Covid-19 leaked in the laboratory. According to him, this is important intelligence information that needs to be understood and has an impact on US-China relations.

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 position under the new leadership, because the review has been underway for some time.

In the final weeks of former President Joe Biden’s administration, former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan directed a new classified assessment of the origins of the pandemic.

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

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

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