CIA Says Pandemic Likely Started From a Lab

Science writers and virologists panic after Trump releases the Biden administration’s final pandemic assessment, undermining years-long campaign to label people "conspiracy theorists."

7 minute read

The CIA released a new analysis last week that concluded the COVID virus likely came from a lab in Wuhan, China, sending Democrats and allied science writers into a tizzy as it undermined their years-long campaign to label people “conspiracy theorists” or “racists” for discussing a Wuhan lab accident.

Shortly after the pandemic started in early 2020, science writer Amy Maxmen tweeted that people suspecting the pandemic started in a lab were part of a racist narrative that attacks Chinese. “Sinophobia & racism lead to conspiracy thinking that scapegoats populations, presupposes Chinese scientific malfeasance & subsumes the suffering of others.”

I’m serious, she really tweeted that.

The labeling campaign continued with virologist Edward Holmes, who wrote an April 2020 statement released by the University of Sydney alleging, "There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans, originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” Holmes alleged. New York Times science writer Carl Zimmer promoted the denigrating statement to his followers on Twitter, claiming that Holmes was a “conspiracy debunker.”

Science Magazine’s Jon Cohen picked up the baton in May 2020, tweeting that he had looked into allegations that the Wuhan lab was linked to the pandemic’s origin, and found it was just some mumbling by Trump “without evidence.”

When Cohen wrote another Science Magazine article dismissing intelligence reports of a possible lab accident, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Holden Thorp promoted Cohen’s article on X, stating, “One side has scientific evidence, the other has a mediocre episode of Homeland.”

Quoting virologists closely aligned with Tony Fauci, CNN science writer Maggie Fox later ridiculed the possibility of a lab accident as “something out of a comic book.” To make this story seem plausible, Fox quoted virologist Robert Garry of Tulane University making the “comic book” jab, without disclosing that Garry’s virus research was funded by Fauci’s NIH institute.

House investigators later released private communications with Garry confirming that, early in the pandemic, he thought the virus could have been engineered.

The Nation reported on many of Garry’s private communications in late 2023, including Garry’s speculations on how the Wuhan lab could have created the virus through a process that hid obvious scientific signs that it had been engineered.

All jokes and “conspiracy theories” aside, here’s what Politico reported on the CIA’s new assessment:

“We have low confidence in this judgement and will continue to evaluate any available credible new intelligence reporting or open-source information that could change CIA’s assessment,” an unnamed CIA spokesperson wrote in an email sent to reporters Saturday.

If you think the new intelligence assessment caused even a moment’s contrition by virologists and their science writer allies, think again. Realizing CIA caught them out in the open, science advocates whipped up a fresh fake narrative: because the CIA released the analysis two days after Trump was sworn into office, Trump had politicized the CIA.

Here's attorney Lawrence Gostin, who leads Georgetown’s O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law, and who remains a favorite quote-generator for reporters trying to knock down any possibility of a lab accident.

“CIA’s dramatic new assessment on COVID origins lacks credibility, Gostin posted on X, “the only factual change is a new president. That’s politics not science.”

Scripps Research Institute’s Kristian Andersen promoted a Bluesky post by Canadian researcher Angela Rasmussen falsely stating, “This reassessment wasn’t because the science changed. The people changed. They have a vested interest in lab leak being true.”

We are not told why anyone has a “vested interest in lab leak being true” but we do know Andersen and Rasmussen have vested interests in a lab accident NOT being true. Andersen receives millions of dollars from the NIH to study viruses and any hint that a lab accident could have caused the pandemic that killed millions would likely turn off the government spigot that funds his dangerous research.

Rasmussen works in this same area, so her research funding is also threatened if the NIH decides to stop funding risky virus studies.

However, we know that all three—Lawrence Gostin, Kristian Andersen, and Angela Rasmussen—were spreading lies about the CIA and Trump, because the Biden administration completed the CIA assessment, not Trump. Here’s Politico again:

A new CIA analysis of the intelligence it had on the virus’ origin was completed and published internally before Ratcliffe’s arrival, the U.S. official said. Ratcliffe authorized its public release, the official added.

The CIA’s assessment made things really tricky for CNN when one of their former journalists, Chris Cilliza, read it and then apologized for CNN’s sloppy, biased reporting that dismissed the possibility of a lab accident. Here’s some of those sloppy CNN headlines. Note that Chris Cilliza reported in May 2020 that Anthony Fauci “crushed” Trump’s theory that the pandemic started in a Wuhan lab.

Here’s what Chris Cilliza is now saying, “[I]t now appears the reality TV-star-turned-president was right. And Anthony Fauci was wrong.”

Things got worse for virologists and Tony Fauci when famed German virology researcher Christian Drosten broke ranks with his colleagues and told a German newspaper that he was wrong to downplay the idea that the COVID pandemic started in a lab. Early in the pandemic, Science Magazine promoted Drosten as a “cult figure” in coronavirus research. However, Drosten now tells a German newspaper that he was “skeptical” of the research community’s impassioned conclusions that a lab accident was a conspiracy theory, because the issue is not settled.

“There is no proof of natural origin, just as there is no proof of laboratory origin,” Drosten now says. You can read an English translation of Drosten’s interview here.

As the week came to a close, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt chastised the White House press corps for mocking Trump when he first informed the American public back in 2020 that the virus could have come from a Wuhan lab.

Several years ago, when I was working in this press shop and President Trump would take to this podium to brief the American people on COVID 19, he suggested that COVID may very well have come from a lab in Wuhan, China. And many members in this very room mocked him for that, said he was spewing conspiracy theories. He was not. We now know that to be the confirmable truth. It took many years for it to come out but the President was right in this instance again.

As I previously reported, Congress will continue investigating how the pandemic started and will seek emails to help the public understand the cover-up Fauci orchestrated to misdirect attention away from a possible accident in Wuhan. Just a few days ago, Senator Ron Johnson sent a subpoena to Health and Human Services demanding Fauci's emails and documents that the Biden administration had illegally redacted and withheld.

Stay tuned. More is sure to come.

On a final note, more and more reporters, pundits, and Democratic Party activists are attempting to deny they ever labeled people “conspiracy theorists” for questioning if the pandemic started in a Wuhan lab funded by Tony Fauci. However, reporter Matt Orfalea created this brief video catching them in their own lies. Enjoy.