Corona origin

Beijing irritated by new CIA assessment

A virus research center in Wuhan(Bild: APA/AFP/STR)

Opinions differ on the origin of the coronavirus. While some experts are firmly convinced that the pathogen was artificially created, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other scientists are certain that the pandemic was triggered by natural transmission via animals. In a new assessment of the available data material, the US secret service CIA has now come to the conclusion that there is a "certain probability" that a laboratory breakdown occurred in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The coronavirus first emerged in the megacity of Wuhan in 2019. From there, the disease spread around the world. The coronavirus pandemic killed 1.1 million people in the USA alone. The CIA's new assessment came just a few days after Donald Trump took office in the White House. He appointed John Ratcliffe as the new CIA director, a man who supports the laboratory theory and accuses Beijing of concealing the origin of the virus.

An aerial view of the suspected laboratory in Wuhan(Bild: APA/AFP/Hector RETAMAL)

On Friday, an interview by the right-wing portal Breitbart was published in which Ratcliffe stated that his most important project at the beginning of his term of office was a reassessment of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Until now, the CIA had not committed itself to any theory.

Beijing accuses Washington of "slandering" China
China was thoroughly irritated by the statements made by the new CIA chief. The theory of a laboratory accident is "extremely unlikely", said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning in Beijing on Monday. This finding was based on a joint investigation by Chinese experts and specialists from the World Health Organization (WHO), who had also visited "the affected laboratories in Wuhan". The US government must stop "slandering other countries and blaming them", Mao emphasized. In addition to the WHO, several other US federal agencies also reject the laboratory theory.