The intelligence agency called the assessment “low confidence” and said it would continue to evaluate reliable information.
The CIA has announced that it believes the coronavirus pandemic is “more likely” to have resulted from a laboratory leak than a natural phenomenon.
The CIA’s “unreliable” rating was released after John Ratcliffe was sworn in as head of the top intelligence agency under President Donald Trump on Thursday.
“The CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural-origin scenarios for the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible,” a spokesperson said on Saturday.
“We have low confidence in this ruling and will continue to evaluate any available reliable new intelligence reports or open source information that may change our assessment of the CIA.”
US media reported that the assessment was ordered under the administration of former US President Joe Biden and was completed before Mr Ratcliffe took office.
The report said the assessment was based on existing information, not new information.
Following the CIA’s announcement, three U.S. government agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Energy, publicly endorsed the theory that the coronavirus most likely escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., rejected the CIA’s assessment, saying it was “manufacturing misleading conclusions, throwing dirty water on China, and fabricating things.”
“Political manipulation of tracing sources remains an old practice and has no credibility. The origin of the virus is a complex scientific issue, and scientists and experts should not be judged by politicians. , answers should be found through rigorous and thorough scientific research,” said embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu.
“We firmly oppose the politicization and blaming of the origins of the virus and reiterate our call to respect science and stay away from conspiracy theories.”
Liu added that China has “always adhered to the spirit of science, openness and transparency,” and said a 2021 joint study between the World Health Organization and China concluded that the likelihood of a lab leak was “extremely low.” I pointed out that.
Four other U.S. intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council said they believe the virus most likely emerged through natural infection.
In an interview with Breitbart News on Friday, Ratcliffe said the origins of the coronavirus would be the “first” priority.
“As you know, I have gone on record as saying that all of our intelligence, science and common sense believe that the origin of the coronavirus was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But the CIA has not made that assessment, or at least not publicly,” Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, told the outlet.
“So I’m going to focus on that and look at the information and make sure the public knows that the agency is going to come off the sidelines.”