Even as the world reels under the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, US President Joe Biden has ordered US intelligence agencies to report to him in the next three months on whether the virus first emerged in China from an animal source or from a laboratory accident.
In a surprise statement, Biden announced that the US intelligence community had delivered a report to him earlier this month on the virus's origins. The document acknowledged divisions over whether the virus was naturally transmitted from animals to humans, the prevailing theory of scientists, or whether it leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which hasn't been ruled out by experts.
He ordered intelligence agencies to 'redouble their efforts' and report to him again in 90 days. "As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China," a statement from the US President said.
In his statement, Joe Biden called on China to cooperate with investigations into the origins of the pandemic but didn't echo calls from Republican lawmakers that Beijing should be held accountable if the virus escaped its lab.
Anthony Fauci, one of the faces of the US pandemic response and an adviser to President Joe Biden, reiterated Wednesday that he believed it was unlikely that the virus came from a lab.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials have emphasized research showing evidence of coronavirus infections outside China in late 2019 and pointed to frozen food imports as a possible vector. Some Chinese diplomats have gone further, suggesting that the virus might have American origins.