US President Orders Investigation Into Origins Of Coronavirus
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – In a significant turnaround U.S. President Joe Biden ordered intelligence services to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including any possibility the trail might lead to a Chinese laboratory.
His decision came after months of minimizing that possibility as a fringe theory.
Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, suggested the coronavirus pandemic emerged from a laboratory accident.
Trump raised doubts that what he called the “China Virus” occurred naturally through human contact with an infected animal in Wuhan, China.
Biden said Wednesday that the majority of the intelligence community had “coalesced” around those two scenarios but “do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.”
He revealed that two agencies lean toward the animal link, and “one leans more toward” the lab theory, “each with low or moderate confidence.”
He asked U.S. intelligence agencies to report back within 90 days. Biden called on China to cooperate with international probes into the origins of the pandemic.
The request came as the World Health Organization faced criticism over an earlier report dismissing the possibility that the virus had accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, in 2019. The theory was largely drowned out last year by scientists’ accounts of its likely path from an animal host to humans in a natural setting.
Some scientists have in recent months expressed a new openness to the idea of a lab accident. Biden urged China to be more transparent.
“The United States will also keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence,” said Biden.
The Biden administration is joining worldwide pressure for China to be more open about the outbreak. It comes amid mounting Republican complaints that the president has not been tough enough to use the opportunity to press China on alleged obstruction.
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