US President orders more intel investigation into COVID-19 origin

Washington: US President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered US intelligence agencies to submit a report on the origin of Covid-19 in the next three months.

Biden directed the agencies to report on whether the Covid-19 virus that first emerged in China was from an animal source or from a laboratory accident.

The US President said that the majority of the intelligence community "do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other."

He directed US national laboratories to assist with the investigation and called on China to cooperate with international probes into the origins of the pandemic.

"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," he said.

He held out the possibility that a firm conclusion may never be known, given the Chinese government's refusal to fully cooperate with international investigations.

"The failure to get our inspectors on the ground in those early months will always hamper any investigation into the origin of Covid-19,'' he added.

The investigating agencies should "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 said in a statement.

According to Biden, agencies are currently split over the two possible sources for the virus that swept the planet over the past year, killing more than 3.4 million people.

Understanding Covid origin will help prepare for next pandemic: White House

In a statement on Wednesday, the White House said, "Getting to the bottom of the origin of this pandemic will help us understand how to prepare for the next pandemic."

Principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Back said in early 2020, the President called for the CDC to get access to China to learn about the virus so we can fight it more effectively.

"We are doing everything to understand this pandemic and prevent future pandemics. Importantly, we will continue pushing for a stronger, more multilateral investigation into the origins of the virus in China," said Jean-Pierre.

"We will continue to press China to participate in a full, transparent evidence-based, international investigation with the needed access to get to the bottom of a virus that has taken more than 3 million lives across the globe," she said.