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.”

  • culpritus [any]@hexbear.net
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    5 days ago

    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 [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      4 days ago

      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 [any]@hexbear.net
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        4 days ago

        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.