President Biden Asks Intelligence Community for Report on COVID-19's Origins
takyon writes:
Biden asks intel community to 'redouble' efforts probing COVID-19 origins
President Biden on Wednesday announced a ramped-up effort to determine the origins of COVID-19, reflecting a new acceptance in U.S. political and public health circles that the virus might have emerged naturally or from a Chinese lab in the city of Wuhan.
Biden asked the U.S. intelligence community to "redouble their efforts" to come to a definitive conclusion on the disease's origins, calling on them to report back to him within 90 days.
"As part of that report, I have asked for areas of further inquiry that may be required, including specific questions for China," Biden said in a statement. "I have also asked that this effort include work by our National Labs and other agencies of our government to augment the Intelligence Community's efforts. And I have asked the Intelligence Community to keep Congress fully apprised of its work."
"The United States will also 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," Biden added.
Top intelligence officials including Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines acknowledged at a hearing in April that a laboratory accident was a plausible scenario that the intelligence community was investigating.
Also at The Guardian, CNBC, and Politico.
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