The intelligence community of the United States has been asked by President Joe Biden to files a report within 90 days on the likely origins of the Covid-19.
In a statement Biden said that he wants the intelligence community to "redouble" their investigative efforts into the origin of the virus. The community however has been divided so far on the issue and there is debate over whether the virus induced pandemic was caused by the leaking of the virus from a Chinese laboratory or had jumped onto humans through natural means.
According to Biden's statement, the US Intelligence Community has “coalesced around two likely scenarios” as of today.
There is one element of the intelligence community that leans toward the possibility of the virus being spread from a laboratory accident while there are two that lean towards the likelihood that the virus emerged from human contact with an infected animal. The assessments were made "with low or moderate confidence" and the majority of members of the intelligence community "do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other”, Biden said.
"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 added.
That means in addition to the intelligence apparatus of the US, the task will also involve the national laboratories and government agencies. The further areas of inquiry that would be required to answer the question of the origin of the virus, including specific questions for China, were also asked to be submitted to him by Biden.
There is however no clarity on how the US will get China to cooperate on the issue – more so because China has accused the US of pushing forward "the lab leak theory."
"We’re just going to continue to work with (the World Health Organization) and WHO is going to continue to work with China on this," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
She however said nothing about whether the conclusions received after 90 days would be made public.
A day prior to Biden’s statement, the US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said that independent assessment of the source of the virus should be allowed to be done by international experts. She told this to the World Health Organization.
In a report published on Monday, the Wall Street Journal claimed citing information from a US intelligence report, that three researchers working at a lab in Wuhan, China, the epicentre from where the pandemic apparently spread throughout the world, had been taken sick with Covid-19 like symptoms in the fall of 2019 – months before the first known confirmed cases of the disease were reported from the city.
Earlier this year, a team of experts from the WHO apparently investigated the origins of the3 virus in China for two weeks but were reported to have been allowed only limited access to the Chinese laboratories that are engaged in studying similar viruses as well access to data about the earliest known case of the disease.
(Source:www.usatoday.com)
In a statement Biden said that he wants the intelligence community to "redouble" their investigative efforts into the origin of the virus. The community however has been divided so far on the issue and there is debate over whether the virus induced pandemic was caused by the leaking of the virus from a Chinese laboratory or had jumped onto humans through natural means.
According to Biden's statement, the US Intelligence Community has “coalesced around two likely scenarios” as of today.
There is one element of the intelligence community that leans toward the possibility of the virus being spread from a laboratory accident while there are two that lean towards the likelihood that the virus emerged from human contact with an infected animal. The assessments were made "with low or moderate confidence" and the majority of members of the intelligence community "do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other”, Biden said.
"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 added.
That means in addition to the intelligence apparatus of the US, the task will also involve the national laboratories and government agencies. The further areas of inquiry that would be required to answer the question of the origin of the virus, including specific questions for China, were also asked to be submitted to him by Biden.
There is however no clarity on how the US will get China to cooperate on the issue – more so because China has accused the US of pushing forward "the lab leak theory."
"We’re just going to continue to work with (the World Health Organization) and WHO is going to continue to work with China on this," White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
She however said nothing about whether the conclusions received after 90 days would be made public.
A day prior to Biden’s statement, the US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said that independent assessment of the source of the virus should be allowed to be done by international experts. She told this to the World Health Organization.
In a report published on Monday, the Wall Street Journal claimed citing information from a US intelligence report, that three researchers working at a lab in Wuhan, China, the epicentre from where the pandemic apparently spread throughout the world, had been taken sick with Covid-19 like symptoms in the fall of 2019 – months before the first known confirmed cases of the disease were reported from the city.
Earlier this year, a team of experts from the WHO apparently investigated the origins of the3 virus in China for two weeks but were reported to have been allowed only limited access to the Chinese laboratories that are engaged in studying similar viruses as well access to data about the earliest known case of the disease.
(Source:www.usatoday.com)
