The C.I.A. has said for years that it did not have enough information to conclude whether the Covid pandemic emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan, China, or from an accidental leak at a research lab there.
But the agency issued a new assessment this week, with analysts saying they now favor the lab theory.
There is no new intelligence behind the agency’s shift, officials said. Rather it is based on the same evidence it has been chewing over for months.
The analysis, however, is based in part on a closer look at the conditions in the high security labs in Wuhan province before the pandemic outbreak, according to people familiar with the agency’s work.
A spokeswoman for the agency said the other theory remains plausible and that the agency will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting.
To quote a wise philosopher, “welcome to the party, pal.”
That’s from the New York Times, where Apoorva Mandavilli, a reporter who covered COVID-19 for the newspaper, claimed in May 2021, “Someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots. But alas, that day is not today.”