By in Banco
New York (Reuters) -The Central Intelligence Agency has assessed that the COVID -19 Pandemie “more likely” came from a laboratory instead of nature, said a spokesperson for the Agency on Saturday.
The agency had said for years that it could not conclude whether COVID-19 was the result of a laboratory incident whether it originated in nature. But in the last weeks of the Biden government, former CIA director William Burns CIA analysts and scientists asked to take clear determination, according to a high American Pandemic officer.
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The CIA says that in its assessment “little trust” has that a “research -related origin of the COVID -19 Pandemie is more likely” and notes in its explanation that both scenarios – laboratory origin and natural origin – remain plausible.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
It was unclear to what extent the agency collected new intelligence about the origin of COVID-19 and whether that new evidence was used to formulate the latest assessment.
The Chinese government says it is supporting and participated in research to determine the origin of COVID-19, and has accused Washington of politicizing the matter, mainly due to efforts of American intelligence services to investigate.
Beijing has claimed that a laboratory leak has probably caused the pandemic, has no credibility.
In an interview with Breitbart after his confirmation by the US Senate on Friday, CIA director John Ratcliffe said that one of his first priorities led his agency to make a public assessment about the origin of the pandemic.
“That's a day one thing for me,” he said. “I have noted as you know by saying that I think our intelligence, our science and our common sense all really dictate that the origin of Covid was a leak in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
(Reporting by Erin Banco; Processing by Daniel Wallis)
