CIA changes position on origin of COVID-19

When the first cases began to emerge, many hypotheses arose about origin of COVID-19 and the virus that causes it, SARS-CoV 2. There was everything from when it appeared in nature, to when some organization created it to control the world’s population, to when it accidentally escaped from laboratory in Wuhan.

Every government and every institution has its own favorite hypothesis. It makes sense that conspiracy theories spread like wildfire on social media. So much so that many scientists had to leave deny that the origin of COVID-19 was synthetic. From a scientific point of view, it did not make sense to create SARS-CoV-2 from scratch. But we already know that in many cases, what the scientists who know the most about a topic say matters the least.

At that time, great importance was attached to US intelligence agencies such as CIA or FBI. The CIA opted for natural origins from the very beginning. However, they just turned 180 degrees, suddenly pointing to the theory escape from the laboratory. It is logical that in this new situation many pointed to Donald Trump as the culprit, although the CIA insists that this conclusion was reached. until the appointment of a new president.

Natural hypotheses about the origin of COVID-19

The first cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the city. seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019. Initially, it was not known which virus caused these pneumonias. It was discovered that this corona virusbut there are many viruses belonging to this family. It was necessary to analyze its genetic material to ensure that it was a virus that had not been previously described. By that time, the number of cases was already in the hundreds, and the situation seemed uncontrollable, which would be confirmed later.

This has since been achieved sequence your entire genome. The virus present in animals near the site where the first cases of the disease appeared was also analyzed. By comparing some genomes with others, the path that the virus could take was drawn. And it seems that it was created in bat cells.

It’s not something strange. These animals have cells that serve as trainers for viruses. They have a very powerful immune system, capable of generating a large number of molecules that contain viruses from the moment of infection. They prevent them from achieving generate symptomsbut they do not destroy them completely. Therefore, the virus persists in cells for a long time under pressure from the immune system, which constantly strangles it.

This gives it two qualities. On the one hand, by remaining in the cells for so long, he has the opportunity make many copies of yourself. By making many copies, you can also make many mistakes in the form of mutations. These mutations can be harmful to the virus, but they can also give it new opportunities. For example, the possibility of infecting cells of species that were previously immune. The second quality is that they spend so much time dealing with the immune system that they can acquire excellent defense tools. This is Spartan training.

If many mutations accumulate, a new species may even arise. This is believed to be the origin of COVID-19. The virus mutated so much in bat cells that it eventually became new: SARS-CoV-2.

The only thing left to know is how the virus jumped from bats to humans. There was a lot of talk that this could be a spike due to direct infection. We’ve all seen the memes about supposed bat soup. But in fact the most defensible hypothesis is that there was transitional look. What kind was this? There is doubt. There has been talk of snakes, pangolins and countless other animals, but nothing is certain. Just the fact of creating such a virus from scratch, without skeleton where to start would be almost impossible.

Intelligence hypotheses

In 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is tasked with overseeing 17 federal intelligence agencies, published a report outlining the positions of some of them on the issue origin of COVID-19.

It was noted that independent investigations of most of them indicated natural origin. It was an unlikely hypothesis, but it seemed more likely to them than an accidental or deliberate escape from the laboratory.

There was talk of one case in particular that leaned much more toward the origin of COVID-19 in a laboratory. Although it is not specified what it was, the investigation carried out Time pointed to FBI.

As for the CIA, he was among those who believed with little confidence in natural origins.

Agencies like the FBI that have chosen laboratory origin are based on the fact that Wuhan has Institute of Virology in which similar viruses are studied. The fact is that this was their only argument: the existence of the institution. How they could create a virus is impossible to describe. At best, it could arise in laboratory animals, like wild bats, and escape from there, but it is much more complicated.

And this is precisely the hypothesis that the CIA is now accepting. Its representatives announced their position last Saturday, according to reports NBCNews. They stressed that this was not based on new research, but on a review of data from previous studies. They also insisted that this review was conducted before Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States.

Of course, the controversy is caused by the CIA and the origins of COVID-19. But the thing is, they still don’t have a shred of evidence that there could have been a lab leak. Until they present it, the most accepted hypothesis will be the natural origin hypothesis.