Story at a glance
- President Biden on Wednesday directed intelligence agencies to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the source of the virus and report back in 90 days.
- Biden said the intelligence community had “coalesced” around two theories of how the virus originated: either it spread naturally from animals to humans or accidentally leaked from a lab.
- Without mentioning the Biden order specifically, the Chinese embassy said political forces have been fixated on political manipulation and a “blame game.”
China’s U.S. embassy says politicizing the investigation into the origin of COVID-19 will hinder international efforts to find the source of the virus, following President Biden’s announcement he’s directed U.S. intelligence agencies to ramp up investigations.
Biden on Wednesday said the intelligence community had “coalesced” around two theories of how the virus originated: either it spread naturally from animals to humans or accidentally leaked from a lab.
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Biden said a definitive conclusion has yet to be made, but two elements of the intelligence community lean toward the human contact with an infected animal theory, while one leans toward the lab-leak scenario. He said the agencies have “low or moderate confidence” about either assessment.
The president ordered intelligence agencies to “redouble” their efforts to investigate the source of the virus and report back in 90 days. He also called on China to cooperate with international investigations.
Without mentioning the Biden order specifically, the Chinese embassy said it supports a thorough investigation of all early cases worldwide but added that political forces have been fixated on political manipulation and a “blame game.”
“Smear campaign and blame shifting are making a comeback, and the conspiracy theory of ‘lab leak’ is resurfacing,” the embassy said in a statement on its website.
“To politicize origin tracing, a matter of science, will not only make it hard to find the origin of the virus, but give free rein to the ‘political virus’ and seriously hamper international cooperation on the pandemic,” the embassy said.
While most in the scientific community believe the likely scenario is that SARS-CoV-2 occurred naturally, investigations have not determined the exact source of the virus and China has faced increasing international pressure to share more information with investigators.
A World Health Organization study published in March said it was unlikely the virus leaked from the lab and it most likely spread from bats to humans through an intermediary species that has yet to be identified.
China has vehemently denied a virology lab in Wuhan, China, could be responsible for the pandemic.
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