Biden orders review of COVID origins as lab leak theory debated
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[May 27, 2021]
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden
ordered aides to find answers to the origin of the virus that causes
COVID-19, saying on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies are
pursuing rival theories potentially including the possibility of a
laboratory accident in China.
Intelligence agencies are considering two likely scenarios but still
lack strong confidence in their conclusions and are hotly debating which
is more probable, Biden said.
The conclusions were detailed in a report to Biden, who asked his team
in March to detail whether the novel coronavirus "emerged from human
contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident,"
according to the president's written statement.
Biden's unusual public disclosure about private and inconclusive U.S.
intelligence assessments revealed a debate raging within his
administration over where the novel coronavirus originated. It also lent
credence to a theory that the virus may have emerged from a Chinese
research laboratory instead of in nature.

China's embassy in the United States said late on Thursday that
politicizing the issue would hamper investigations into the origins of
COVID-19.
China supports "a comprehensive study of all early cases of COVID-19
found worldwide and a thorough investigation into some secretive bases
and biological laboratories all over the world," the embassy said in
remarks attributed to a spokesperson, posted on its website.
The pandemic has killed more than 3 million people worldwide and
battered the global economy because of lockdowns and other restrictions
to slow its spread. The origin of the virus remains contested among
experts. The first known cases emerged in the central Chinese city of
Wuhan in December 2019.
In a report issued in March and written jointly with Chinese scientists,
a World Health Organization-led team that spent four weeks in and around
Wuhan in January and February said the virus had probably been
transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that
"introduction through a laboratory incident was considered to be an
extremely unlikely pathway."
'SPECIFIC QUESTIONS FOR CHINA'
Washington's frustration has mounted in recent weeks over what it sees
as insufficient cooperation from China into the international
investigation.
"I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts
to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a
definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days," Biden said.
"As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that
may be required, including specific questions for China."
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President Joe Biden and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (not
pictured) hold a joint news conference after a day of meetings at
the White House, in Washington, U.S. May 21, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan
Ernst

U.S. agencies have been pursuing COVID-19's origins
since the government first recognized the virus as a serious health
risk in early 2020.
Earlier this week, U.S. government sources said a still-classified
U.S. intelligence report circulated during former President Donald
Trump's administration alleged that three researchers at China's
Wuhan Institute of Virology became so ill in November 2019 that they
sought hospital care.
The source of that early intelligence or how reliable U.S. agencies
rate it is not known. It remains unclear whether the afflicted
researchers were hospitalized or what their symptoms were, one of
the sources said.
Intelligence committees of both the U.S. Senate and House of
Representatives are investigating how U.S. agencies have reported on
and gathered information about COVID-19's origin, how it spread and
how governments have responded to it.
A report issued by House Intelligence Committee Republicans earlier
this month focused particularly on the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The Republican report asserted that "significant circumstantial
evidence raises serious concerns that the COVID-19 outbreak may have
been a leak" from the institute, suggested the Wuhan lab was
involved in biological weapons research, and that Beijing had
attempted to "cover up" the virus' origins.
Washington has called for the WHO to open a second phase to its
investigation on COVID-19's origin.
On Wednesday in Geneva, WHO emergency director Mike Ryan said the
agency expected to provide an update on its proposed next steps "in
the coming weeks."
China's delegation to the WHO said on Tuesday it was calling on "all
parties" to "adopt an open and transparent attitude" to cooperate
with the WHO's attempts to trace the virus' origin.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Nandita Bose; Additional
reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in
Geneva; Editing by Alistair Bell, David Gregorio and Peter Cooney)
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