President Biden on Thursday committed to releasing the intelligence community’s forthcoming report on the origins of the coronavirus unless he comes across an outstanding curveball.
“Yes, unless there’s something I’m unaware of,” Mr. Biden told reporters as he was traveling to Ohio.
He said he doesn’t know what to expect.
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t ask for a 90-day review,” the president said.
Mr. Biden on Wednesday announced he asked the U.S. intelligence community to “redouble their efforts” in investigating the origins of the coronavirus and report back to him in 90 days.
He said an intelligence report he received earlier this month didn’t come to a definitive conclusion on whether the virus emerged from human-animal contact or from a “laboratory accident” in China.
The presidential statement suggests a pivot to intelligence-centered efforts after officials for months said they would work with the World Health Organization to press China for more details on whether the virus occurred naturally or escaped from a lab in Wuhan.
Mr. Biden said in his Wednesday statement that he wouldn’t shut out allies, however.
“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,” Mr. Biden said.
The notion of a lab mishap has gained mainstream credence of late, particularly after reports researchers at a Wuhan virology lab got so sick in November 2019 they were hospitalized.
Health, The New York Today
