Joe Biden calls for further probe into origins of coronavirus pandemic, urges transparency from China
- The US president requests further analysis on pandemic’s origin, to be completed in 90 days
- US will work with ‘partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation’, Biden says
Biden, in a statement, said that an investigation by the US intelligence community “has not reached a definitive conclusion on” whether the virus “emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident”. He has requested further analysis, which will be assisted by US national laboratories and other agencies, to be completed in 90 days.
“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,” Biden said, stressing that he has asked the investigators about areas of further inquiry, including specific questions for China.
The president’s call adds more pressure to the World Health Organization (WHO) as the UN body has its annual meeting of its member countries this week. The gathering is the first since the group made a verdict in March after its investigation into the virus origins that said it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab.
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Biden administration will start 90 day probe into pandemic’s origin, press China for transparency
A call for a second phase of investigation has been mounting by these member countries, arguing that a further probe is necessary to get a better understanding of the virus that caused a global pandemic that has claimed about 3.5 million lives worldwide and nearly 600,000 in the US.
In the US, the consensus among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle has been building, following The Wall Street Journal report on Sunday about three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who were hospitalised just before the outbreak was confirmed in China.
Balancing act for WHO on next phase of research into virus origins
Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser on the Covid-19 response, called the inquiry a “critical priority” on Tuesday.
“We need a completely transparent process from China; we need the WHO to assist in that matter,” Slavitt said. “We don’t feel like we have that now.”
On Wednesday, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that “since there’s a lot of concern, a lot of speculation and since no one absolutely knows that, I believe we do need the kind of investigation where there’s open transparency and all the information that’s available, to be made available, to scrutinise,” at a Senate hearing.
“Some people in the United States claim they want the truth, but their real intention is political manipulation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
“Whenever they bring up the pandemic, they smear and attack China, and they have completely ignored their own failure to contain the outbreak and the many questions raised about the [possibility that the virus originated] on their soil,” he said.
Zhao suggested that a biomedical research laboratory at the Fort Detrick military base in Maryland be investigated.
China hits out at US calls for further probe into coronavirus origins
In Wednesday’s statement, Biden said the origins of the virus may never be understood fully because the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention did not get early access to China when the virus first emerged.
“The failure to get our inspectors on the ground in those early months will always hamper any investigation into the origin of Covid-19,” Biden said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
