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The nuanced finding suggests the agency believes the totality of evidence makes a lab origin more likely than a natural origin. But the agency’s assessment assigns a low degree of confidence to this conclusion, suggesting the evidence is deficient, inconclusive or contradictory.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 56 points 3 weeks ago

The CIA under Trump is backing the "theory" Trump wants them to back. What a shock.

[-] eclipse@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago
[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago
[-] nomy@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 weeks ago

Concept of a fever dream

[-] spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone 39 points 3 weeks ago

The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the coronavirus pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, according to an assessment released on Saturday that points the finger at China even while acknowledging that the spy agency has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.

A low confidence finding essentially means the evidence to support that theory is incomplete or questionable.

Aside from the fact that even the CIA doesn't believe this, isn't this the same shit we talked about 2 years ago?

[-] mjsaber@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 3 weeks ago

You are correct, this is not new, nor does it bring any new information to light.

[-] OccamsRazer@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

It's a low confidence theory, but still the most likely theory based on the available evidence. And yeah it's not new news.

[-] takeheart@lemmy.world 21 points 3 weeks ago

This feels quite politically motivated. Trump appointment aside, the CIA specifically uses the words "low confidence", so even if they deem it the most likely, it's still only the most likely from several low confidence options.

But look at how lawmakers exploit it:

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton said he was “pleased” the CIA concluded in the Biden administration’s final days that the lab-leak theory was the most plausible explanation of Covid-19’s origins, and commended Mr Ratcliffe for releasing the conclusion.

“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Mr Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said in a statement. BLOOMBERG

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/cia-now-favours-lab-leak-theory-to-explain-covid-19-origins

[-] Captainvaqina@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago

They so obviously all being paid/blackmailed to destroy this country from within.

Rest in pieces USA, all thanks to republican traitor filth.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 6 points 3 weeks ago

“Now, the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world,” Mr Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said in a statement.

What plague? I thought the whole thing was made up to "control us" and everyone died of the flu.

[-] Ghyste@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

What a sad joke that a moron like Cotton is chairman of the fucking intelligence committee...

[-] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

It doesn't matter where it came from! It doesn't change the fact that our government left us to die, and corporations picked over our remains. As humanity grows so does the possibility of new diseases. Covid was almost the perfect test disease for modern nations to experience. Deadly enough to have to be taken seriously, but not deadly enough to be uncontrollable. We could have stopped the spread in 14 days. But stopping the flow of private money was unthinkable for even one day, so doors stayed open and the disease flourished. If covid was more deadly the world would have crumbled to ground because the wealthy and powerful can't imagine losing one cent of profit. Even if that means losing billions of lives.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 19 points 3 weeks ago

I didn't trust the CIA in the first place, but given their low confidence in this conclusion and the fact that Trump ordered it released, it's essentially journalistic malpractice to publish this article.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 18 points 3 weeks ago

You know what is true? The Trump admin had a hand in making the outbreak far worse, both in China and in the US. Doesn't really matter if the origin is natural or manmade if you completely fumble the ball in a response. This is a very lame attempt to push a blame game back on China again.

[-] MapleEngineer@lemmy.world 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The new director of the CIA, a Trumpist stooge, is now pushing Trumpist lies.

FTFY

Oh I 100% agree, I just kept the article title the same as was originally published.

[-] Lemminary@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

Isn't this like really old news? They had a similar investigation years ago that also had low confidence. They're only doubling down. It also changes nothing.

[-] DevCat@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

Considering trump's efforts to put political officers in charge of all official communications, any such "news" must be considered suspect.

[-] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Welp, look at that. Guess Captain Cheeto didn't lie all along since... checks notes... the CIA was now told to push a false narrative.

/s

What a load of horseshit. There goes the reputation of another department.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

It wasn't released because it was low confidence. Meaning the evidence behind this is non existent or contradictory. It makes a great headline but nobody who is serious thinks this confirms the lab theory.

[-] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 2 points 3 weeks ago

Added the /s because I was being sarcastic. ;)

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

Ahh okay. Thank you.

[-] madjo@feddit.nl 5 points 3 weeks ago

What difference does it make? It was still a pandemic that wasn't planned, and many people lost their lives or had their lives severely affected as a result. And a certain US president, I will not name any names, completely mismanaged it, because it took his name off the frontpages of the news papers and Fox News.

Other governments were also completely idiotic in their response.

My government, for instance, had a different roadmap out of Covid lockdowns every week or so. Our minister of security at the time held a wedding reception while the rest of the country was in lockdown. And our Prime Minister ("teflon Mark Rutte") just laughed it all away.

So it's not just the US where the government was stupid, but we didn't have morgues overflowing with dead bodies where they were stored in refrigerated trucks on the street, but we did have overflowing ERs and nurses on the brink of burn out, because the finances for those care units had been stripped because of neo-liberal policies in the past decade or so.

[-] doleo@lemmy.one 4 points 3 weeks ago

I think one difference it makes, to answer your question, is that unsubstantiated claims like this tend to spread, virus like. Especially when pedalled by presidents and official government agencies. Many governments handled the pandemic predictably awfully, but this false narrative can have dangerous consequences, too. I'm worried about the number of times I've seen 'plandemic' spoken about. It gives me the impression that simply through repetition the meme grew stronger. But now it's being echoed by_official statespeople. _

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

The difference is that it'd allow the attribution of negligence which could be used for geopolitical gain.

E.g. "Government X's bad management of COVID wouldn't have been an issue if China wasn't leaking deadly diseases out of research institutions. So Government X deserves compensation for the harm China caused to the people of Government X. So X will institute trade sanctions of China."

[-] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

20 year later...

OK guys, Here's how a laser works...first you need two mirrors, then Aliens.

OK, Here's how cars get made! Mostly aliens

And fruit has to get picked. You guessed it! Aliens!

[-] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago

C'mon, we can't trust the CIA, we can't trust the CIA with a Trump lackey and we can't trust China. This is just no-news, this is nothing

[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago

Fuck scientists, long live dogma!

I should clarify, I included the excerpt in the post because i, too, believe this is bullshit.

[-] PunnyName@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

Who gives a shit?

It wasn't a man-made lab leak.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 3 points 3 weeks ago

Even if it was, does it make a difference? It's not like this is the type of thing you would do on purpose, because releasing it hurts everyone equally.

The only thing that you should conclude out of this is that you should probably just ban gain of function research and make sure lab security is regularly inspected by the WHO, things that should already be in place without needing a pandemic.

[-] formergijoe@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

Yes but now all the screetching heads can screetch it was all made by China and funded by George Soros and all Fauci's fault and all the horrible talking points because there is a "source" that "proves" it was a man-made leak.

[-] spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 weeks ago

This really doesn't change much though, the DOE put out the same low confidence theory 2 years ago. The fact that the intelligence agency hasn't reached a better confidence level two years after the energy department said the same thing, that's more like a massive strike against the theory than anything that supports it.

[-] OccamsRazer@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

The main reason they don't have the evidence is because China won't cooperate. We may never know.

[-] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Who gives a shit?

So we can prevent the next one. More stringent lab testing procedures are required in China. And, if not implemented, we can easily have a repeat event with a different pathogen.

[-] Free_Opinions@feddit.uk -2 points 3 weeks ago

It’s quite funny how the virus originated in a city with a lab studying precisely that kind of virus, yet judging by the comments, it’s considered outrageous to even suggest the possibility that it might have escaped from that lab.

Nobody is claiming with absolute certainty that it did, but it seems strange to completely dismiss the idea.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

You are mistaking dismissal with lack of acceptance. They are different.

The first is "I don't accept this." The second is "I need more to be convinced of it."

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Nobody is claiming with absolute certainty that it did,

Are you kidding? Of course they are

this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2025
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