Whistleblower: CIA officers were paid off to change COVID origins determination

A whistleblower is alleging that six out of seven members of the CIA’s COVID Discovery Team believed the coronavirus pandemic began in a lab but were paid off to publicly state they were uncertain. That’s according to a letter from the chairmen of the House Intelligence Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to CIA Director William Burns.

The letter states, “According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.” 

The seventh member of the committee believed COVID-19 went from bat to human. The whistleblower said the other six members were given a “significant monetary incentive to change their position.” 

The Chairmen are asking Burns for the following: 

• Documents and communications related to COVID Discovery Teams;
• Documents and communications from the team regarding origins;
• Documents and communications from the team to other employees, contractors and governments agencies; and 
• Information on pay history, including bonuses. 
  

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) called for accountability and reforms to ensure something like what is alleged doesn’t happen again. 

“They need to be fired first and foremost. I mean, you shouldn’t have a job with that kind of trust and responsibility if you’re going to do things like that,” Jackson told Straight Arrow News. 

Jackson, a member of the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, accused employees within government agencies of making political decisions to reach the conclusion the Biden Administration wanted them to. 

“It’s good for no one in this country if we have people in apolitical positions making determinations for political reasons. And we just, we have to get rid of that in our government,” Jackson said. 

​​According to the Straight Arrow News Media Miss™ tool, this story is a Media Miss for the left. The Media Landscape indicates that while right-leaning and center outlets are covering this story, no left-leaning outlets are reporting on the topic as of press time. 

SAN’s media landscape tool indicates 86% of the outlets reporting on this lean right, 14% are center, but none are considered left leaning.