USA New director changes CIA assessment on corona origins
As one of his first official acts, the new director of the US foreign intelligence agency CIA, John Ratcliffe, has changed his agency's assessment of the origin of the coronavirus. This now assumes a laboratory mishap. "The CIA assesses with low confidence that, based on available reports, a research-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin," according to a statement made available to US media. However, the origin of the virus is still being investigated. The son of US President Donald Trump, Don Jr, praised Ratcliffe's decision on Platform X.
25.01.2025, 21:53
SDA
Ratcliffe is newly sworn in
The CIA had previously taken the position that there was not enough information to assess whether the virus had jumped from an animal to a human - or was the result of a mishap in a Chinese laboratory. Ratcliffe, on the other hand, had in the past supported the laboratory theory and accused Beijing of concealing the origin of the virus. The former congressman from Texas served as intelligence coordinator during Republican Trump's first term in office - but only for around seven months. At the time, the Democrats accused Ratcliffe of abusing his position for political purposes, among other things. He was sworn in on Thursday.
Biden's government did not want to commit itself
There is disagreement among US intelligence agencies about the origin of the virus. Some US authorities are still of the opinion that the virus was probably transmitted naturally, while others are undecided or assume a laboratory mishap. The US government under Trump's Democratic predecessor Joe Biden repeatedly emphasized that there is still no unified view within the government on the origin of the coronavirus. Trump, on the other hand, is convinced that the virus can be traced back to a mishap in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. China has always rejected allegations of a possible laboratory accident.
