US President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered American intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus. In a statement, Biden said that he had asked the Intelligence Community (IC) to report back to him in 90 days on areas of further inquiry, as well as specific questions for China. The leader further noted that federal agencies as well as National Labs had been instructed to work closely with IC to enhance its efforts.
The move comes in the face of increasing debate over the role of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the outbreak. Though the theory centred around COVID-19 leaking from a lab—which gained significant momentum during Donald Trump’s presidency—has been largely dismissed by public health experts, recent revelations about the institution’s researchers becoming sick “symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses” and needing hospital care in November 2019 (which was well before China first reported the first case of COVID-19) has refuelled concerns about the origins of the deadly virus.
Biden, in his statement on Wednesday, acknowledged that while there was still not a “definitive conclusion” on the question, the IC had “coalesced around two likely scenarios.” “While two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter—each with low or moderate confidence—the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” the President said. He further stressed that the US will “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.”
According to CNN, the former administration had apparently launched a State Department inquiry in late 2020 to prove that the virus originated in a Wuhan lab. At the time, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had consistently parroted Trump’s claims of there being “enormous evidence” to support such assertions and had stressed the importance of finding links between the Chinese military (and its biological weapons program) and the pandemic. However, given the administration’s harsh rhetoric against China, the probe also came under increased scrutiny amid concerns that it was part of the government’s broader effort to solely blame Beijing for the global disaster and deflect responsibility for its own abysmal handling of the outbreak in the US. When Biden was briefed about the investigation earlier this year, his team reportedly shut it down, after questioning the credibility of its findings and saying that the project was an ineffective use of resources.
Now, given that the administration has seemingly changed its tune, Biden and the “liberal media” are being slammed by conservatives, for calling them conspiracy theorists when they were right about asking similar questions about the virus last year. Sean Hannity of Fox News lambasted outlets like The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, CNN, AP, and Politico earlier this week for dismissing the Trump administration’s valid concerns about the virus being leaked from a lab.
“It [the theory] was always credible and always logical. You were just dead wrong. Eat that fact check. That’s called the truth,” Hannity said, adding (in response to a tweet by Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post): “You, your abusively biased colleagues in the media mob, you just hated Trump so much that you’re willing to push Chinese propaganda from the World Health Organization to try and make Donald Trump look stupid. He was right, Glenn. What are you going to apologize? And who looks stupid now? Care to fact check that fact?”
Also under fire is Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who on Tuesday told Senate lawmakers that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave $600,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, over five years. Though the funding was eventually suspended, Fauci said that there was no guarantee that the scientists did not use the money for “gain of function” research, which involves making viruses for transmissible or deadly to better understand the best ways to fight them.
However, he stressed that scientists at the lab were “trustworthy” and that he expected them to fully comply with the conditions of the grant. Fauci also recently said that although the most likely scenario for the virus’ emergence was one of natural evolution, he was not fully convinced about it. “I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we find out to the best of our ability exactly what happened,” he added. This has only triggered more calls for his termination from Republicans who have criticised his constantly shifting positions on the pandemic. “It is long past time for Dr. Fauci to stop talking to the American public. Fauci should resign or be fired immediately,” said Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Guy Reschenthaler.
Biden Calls for Intelligence Report on COVID-19 Origin As Wuhan Lab Leak Theory Grows
In his statement on Wednesday, Biden acknowledged that while there was still not a “definitive conclusion” on the question, the IC had “coalesced around two likely scenarios.”
May 27, 2021
SOURCE: MELINA MARA/REUTERS