this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025
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Link, text of the article below with me highlighting the only important bit.

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The Central Intelligence Agency has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is "more likely" to have emerged from a lab rather than from nature, an agency spokesperson said on Saturday.

The agency had for years said it could not conclude whether COVID-19 was the result of a lab incident or it originated in nature. But in the final weeks of the Biden administration, former CIA Director William Burns asked CIA analysts and scientists to make a clear determination, stressing the pandemic's historical significance, according to a senior U.S. official.

The CIA says it has "low confidence" in its assessment that a "research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely" and notes in its statement that both scenarios - lab origin and natural origin - remain plausible.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was unclear the extent to which the agency has collected new intelligence on COVID-19's origins and whether that new evidence was used to formulate the latest assessment.

China’s government says it supports and has taken part in research to determine COVID-19’s origin, and has accused Washington of politicizing the matter, especially because of efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate.

Beijing has said claims that a laboratory leak likely caused the pandemic have no credibility. In an interview with Breitbart following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate on Friday, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said one of his first priorities was getting his agency to make a public assessment on the pandemic's origins.

“That’s a day-one thing for me," he said. "I’ve been on record as you know in saying I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

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[–] Wheaties@hexbear.net 36 points 2 days ago (3 children)

For your sanity and mine, assume a natural origin for covid.

Now, for those who don't remember or missed it,

Reguardless of natural or man-made, COVID did not originate in Wuhan, China!

A hospital in Italy went and looked at frozen lung samples from autumn of 2019, and found COVID-19 antibodies in them. Summer of 2019, the US was experiencing a wave of unidentified respiratory illnesses across elder car facilities, as well as a "vape related illness". This. Thing. Did. NOT. Start. In. China. They were just the first to isolate, identify, and confirm the virus!

[–] REgon@hexbear.net 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Investigate Fort Detrick! Or at least that's the one I think is the one people say could have originated COVID 19. Lots of "vape-related respiratory illness". I'm sure someone has a good pepe-silvia post

[–] sexywheat@hexbear.net 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)
[–] REgon@hexbear.net 9 points 2 days ago

lets-fucking-go I LOVE CONSPIRACY THEORIES

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

An Imgur link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.

[–] baaaaaaaaaaah@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I feel like China would be pushing this if this was the case, no?

I understand that the theory floated around Chinese media in the early days of the pandemic but I've not seen anything recently.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I feel like China would be pushing this if this was the case, no?

China don't have the custom of loudly and publicly debunking every single US bullshit propaganda (actually, basically none of them). USSR did the same, which sadly resulted in a lot of the nonsense becoming not only dominant but only or nearly only narrative, like Katyń for example.

[–] tellmeaboutit@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 days ago

It would also be easy to identify in the sequencing data because mutations happen at a contestant and predictable rate. That makes it easy to trace the lineage of a virus. Given that every strain we know of originated from the initial sequences isolated in Wuhan, the idea that the pandemic started elsewhere is just nonsense.

[–] gil2455526@lemmy.eco.br 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A hospital in Italy went and looked at frozen lung samples from autumn of 2019

I looked for this study, and I think I found it, but it used samples from confirmed COVID-19 deaths from 2020.

[–] sempersigh@hexbear.net 39 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

There are two wolves inside the American conservative

Wolf #1: Covid is completely harmless and/or fake you just need to eat healthy(raw meat) and take your ivermectin or whatever the fuck

Wolf #2: ITS AN EVIL BIOWEAPON FROM DA C C P AND THEYRE TRYING TO DEPOPUALTE THE PLANET OF GOOD WHOLESOME WHITE CHRISTIANS

[–] tellmeaboutit@lemmygrad.ml 23 points 2 days ago

Yeah let’s trust the experts in Havana syndrome to tell epidemiologists how diseases work. That will end well.

[–] Mindfury@hexbear.net 46 points 3 days ago (1 children)

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The Central Intelligence Agency has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is "more likely" to have emerged from a lab rather than from nature, an agency spokesperson said on Saturday.

yeah, and that lab is in Maryland

[–] oscardejarjayes@hexbear.net 38 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] culpritus@hexbear.net 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Has there ever been any further info about this incident?

Fort Detrick is home to the military's flagship biological defense laboratory and several federal civilian biodefense labs. About 10,000 military personnel and civilians work on the base, which encompasses about 1,300 acres (526 hectares) in the city of Frederick.

Woldesenbet lived at an apartment building in Frederick, a few miles from the site of the shooting. Police cordoned off the apartment on Tuesday afternoon and a neighbor reported seeing officials escorting his wife and children from the building.

Authorities haven't disclosed a possible motive for the shooting, which took place at a warehouse rented by the Naval Medical Research Center, Biological Defense Research Directorate to store research supplies and equipment. The facility is located in the Riverside Tech Park, an office park several miles from the base.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/frederick-maryland-shooting-fort-detrick-gunman-fantahun-woldesenbet/

https://heavy.com/news/fantahun-woldesenbet/

[–] REgon@hexbear.net 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've kinda gotten used to the US being full of random violence and people suddenly breaking under psychic pressure and a frothing fascist culture, going out guns blazing. What is the especially suspicious thing about this corpsman shooting someone?
I'm not trying to be cheeky and I'm sorry I don't see what it is. I'd like to.

[–] culpritus@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/health/fort-detrick-lab-shut-down-after-failed-safety-inspection-all-research-halted-indefinitely/article_767f3459-59c2-510f-9067-bb215db4396d.html

Mostly that he worked at this lab that had a history of safety issues with engineered bio weapons. Also he didn't shoot any seemingly random people, only other personnel at this remote site. Then he drove to the base where he was killed by the police. Could just be more US mil stochastic terrorism, sure. I'm just used to seeing more info come out about mass shooters over time, and that never seems to have happened in this case. Even though there is mention of "stacks of papers" by the investigators.

"We're still trying to sort through stacks of paper ... to figure out exactly what the motive would be," Frederick Police Lt. Andrew Alcorn said Tuesday.

Lt. Col. Gregory Jackson, the Army base's chaplain, said in a Facebook post that the shootings leave a lasting mark on the Fort Detrick community "with a lot of questions, and the biggest will be why?"

"Why did this person choose to do what he did?" he asked. "I wish we had answers to these questions, but, we don't always know the reason."

Any mil shooter at a mil base usually gets a full PTSD apologia cycle in the news media at a minimum. Sus by the omission in my view.

[–] REgon@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah that is sus, thanks for the explanation

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 42 points 3 days ago (1 children)

is cia scientists now?

In an interview with Breitbart

thank you thomas reuters for this sterling journalism

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I was expecting New Tang Dynasty to pop up as another source after that Breitbart line

[–] Ram_The_Manparts@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

Definitely not Falun Gong

[–] LaughingLion@hexbear.net 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You know it was CIA propaganda when the two of the biggest "China blogger" YouTubers, Laowhy86 and Serpentza, went so hard on it. Those fools are both so obviously on payroll they may as well show you the checks.

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 22 points 2 days ago

SSerpentza and Laoweiner88

[–] Cimbazarov@hexbear.net 33 points 2 days ago

I mean, let's say it did come from a lab. That means if you release a disease to the American public, their government will literally let their citizens die en masse before trying to actually combat it.

Add the anti-vax hysteria and the next pandemic is gonna kill twice the amount of people. Who knows man, maybe the American bourgeois want to kill the workers en masse so they can replace them with AI with little fuss

[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fuck the CIA. They lie constantly. And people lie about them constantly, too. Strange, that.

[–] REgon@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'm sorry I'm not picking up what you're putting down. What point are you making here?

[–] CrawlMarks@hexbear.net 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Realistically this is a disease that epidemiologists predicted would happen. Like they didn't know which one they just knew something was like was inevitable. However with the intensity we are pushing this propaganda I now assume it came from one of our military labs. We probably selectively bread an otherwise normal cold virus into a super killing machine just to see if we could. That behavior isn't actually uncommon and there are valid scie.tific reasons for trying. Then somebody forgot to wash his hands after some stupid thing and then covid.

[–] ButtBidet@hexbear.net 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

According to the CIA, that itch on your balls likely to come from a lab in China.

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 18 points 2 days ago

Havana syndrome is so last cycle

It's all Beijing syndrome now

[–] AntifaSuperWombat@hexbear.net 16 points 2 days ago

I actually hope that it was from a lab because that would mean that all the racism against Chinese people about eating unclean animals was even more unfounded than it already was.

“...I think our intelligence, our science, and our common sense all really dictate that the origins of COVID was a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

it-is-known vibes

[–] KnilAdlez@hexbear.net 32 points 3 days ago

Gargalmel says COVID-19 'more likely' to have come from the Smurfs

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 29 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

turning a big dial taht says "Sinophobia" on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on the price is right

https://hexbear.net/comment/1289709

[–] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 26 points 3 days ago

If covid was a lab leak then we really fucked up by not taking it seriously then, didn't we?

Like how is this not copping to a self-own

[–] micnd90@hexbear.net 22 points 3 days ago

Brought to you by people who think Saddam had WMD

[–] graymess@hexbear.net 22 points 3 days ago

Update your sinophobic propaganda, CIA. It's 2025. Americans don't give a fuck about covid.

[–] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

There are actually some people in China who believe that COVID was a conspiracy weaponized to destroy China’s economy.

Since the central government allowed local governments to officially issue government bonds (debt) back in 2014, many local governments - which already saw increasing debt burden back then - had jumped on a property investment scheme, took out huge loans and banked on the property developers building new cities so the local governments can profit off selling the land with rising value in 10 years. They were betting on the land premium rising by so much by 2025 that it could pay off their outstanding debt.

Then COVID came in 2020 and crashed everything - consumption was driven down, people unwilling to invest their savings, and the property sector boom was over by 2021 (in some cities, prices have fallen by as much as 40% by 2024 - it’s so over). Local governments had to take on strenuous debt to finance the measures taken against COVID, which decimated their budgets and many of them have since been saddled in outrageous amounts of debt (in Heilongjiang, for example, 500-600% of their GDP) with no easy way out.

Figure: Provincial GDP contribution (gray bars) is highly uneven, with most of the economy concentrated in the coastal manufacturing regions in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang (left four). Blue line shows the debt to GDP ratio and many of the poorer regions have exceptionally high debt burden (e.g. Yunnan (云南), Guangxi (广西), Heilongjiang (黑龙江) all having 500-700% debt to GDP ratio). Only Shanghai has less than 100% debt to GDP ratio.

Extremely good timing if you want to engineer an economic downturn in China. You can get very conspiratorial about it but chances are the pandemic likely happened due to factors including climate change coupled with poor sanitary measures.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

There are actually some people in China who believe that COVID was a conspiracy weaponized to destroy China’s economy.

If it really came from fort Dietrick it isn't even this crazy, the timing of it exactly match with when US started intensifying propaganda and economic war on China and US is known to use biological weapons in multiple countries.

[–] SoJB@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Frankly, my conclusion to your explanation is that all members of those local governments who voted to so carelessly gamble the lives of their citizens should be executed.

[–] Wheaties@hexbear.net 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

all members of those local governments who voted to so carelessly gamble the lives of their citizens should be executed

Local governments had to take on strenuous debt to finance the measures taken against COVID, which decimated their budgets and many of them have since been saddled in outrageous amounts of debt (in Heilongjiang, for example, 500-600% of their GDP) with no easy way out.

I'm sorry, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but are you suggesting that an institution taking on debt in a crisis is "gambling with people's lives"? Cus, like, debt is bad... but also... at the end of the day it's just a made up number in a spreadsheet. Like, there's plenty of real examples of governments gambling with people's lives during the start of COVID, and they blow "taking on a little debt" out of the fukcing water.

[–] baaaaaaaaaaah@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago

The property investment 'gambling' was pre-covid, according to xiaohongshu's comment. I assume that's what they're referring to

[–] AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

seems like they took on the debt to do things and those things were... properly react to a pandemic? I'm not sure if you misunderstood something or I did

[–] rootsbreadandmakka@hexbear.net 18 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Old news, get ready for the bird flu came from China propaganda campaign

[–] ButtBidet@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago

The Chinese government secretly releases bird flu in thousands of farms all over continental Amerika over a period of two years, until it mutated to a variant easily transmissible between humans. Damn that insidious see pee pee.

[–] REgon@hexbear.net 8 points 2 days ago

Bird flu is gonna get called "the Chinese flu" because China will be the first to actually react to the ongoing epidemic. Just like the Spanish flu yay

[–] adultswim_antifa@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago