Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The CIA has changed its evaluation in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, it now favors the laboratory escape theory. Under its new director, John RatcliffeThe agency published an evaluation of the origins of COVID-19.
The review was ordered by the national security advisor of former President Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, for the end of Biden’s time in office.
The analysts did the evaluation with “low confidence” despite the former CIA director, Bill Burns, who remained agnostic in the origins, telling the agency that he needed to see the existing evidence again and return to one side or another.
The security staff is guard outside the Wuhan Virology Institute in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization team that investigates the origins of the Coronavirus Covid-19 made a visit to the Institute in Wuhan in the central province of Hubei of China , on February 3, 2021. (Héctor Retamal/AFP through Getty Images)
The agency has maintained for years that it did not have enough intelligence to conclude whether Covid originated In a laboratory or a wet market in Wuhan, China. Despite the new evaluation that favors a laboratory leak, there were no indications of new evidence.
“The CIA evaluates with little confidence that an origin related to the investigation of the COVID-19 pandemic The Covid.
“We have little confidence in this trial and we will continue to evaluate any new credible intelligence report or open source information that can change the CIA evaluation.”
Ratcliffe, who was confirmed on Thursday, has long been a defender of laboratory escape theory. In an interview with Breitbart, Ratcliffe framed the evaluation of Covid’s origins as part of a broader strategy “to address China’s threat.”
He also said he wants the CIA to “get out of the beard” and take a position.
John Ratcliffe appears for a Senate Intelligence Confirmation Hearing in Capitol Hill on January 15, 2025 in Washington, DC (Andrew Harnik/Getty images)
Who renews China calls to share data on Covid Origins 5 years later
In March 2023 Fox News article co -written with Cliff Sims, Ratcliffe accused the Biden administration of trying to maintain a growing consensus around laboratory leak theory by suppressing “what can clearly be evaluated of the intelligence they possess.”
He also questioned the notion that the CIA did not have enough evidence to reach a conclusion about the origins of the virus.
“The CIA is the main espionage agency in the world. Its scope is unmatched, its ability to acquire information without equal. Enough information to make an evaluation.
A sign on the COVID-19 tests is shown outside a COVID-19 test site when a health walker collects test tubes in Wheeling, Illinois, December 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Click here to get the Fox News application
In the same piece, Ratcliffe and Sims ruled out the idea that the virus arose naturally, claiming that there was “a complete absence of intelligence or scientific evidence” that pointed to that conclusion.
When he testified before the select subcommittee of the house about the Coronavirus pandemic in April 2023, Ratcliffe said that the laboratory escape theory was “the only explanation backed crediblely for our intelligence, science and common sense.”
