US President Joe Biden signed into law a law requiring the national intelligence service to declassify the available information about the origin of COVID-19. This was announced on Monday, March 20, by the White House.
“We need to understand the origins of COVID-19 to help prevent future pandemics. My administration will continue to verify all classified information regarding the origin of COVID-19, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, ”the press service of the department quoted the head of state as saying.
According to the American leader, the US administration will declassify as much information as possible. At the same time, Biden reserves the right to keep part of the intelligence secret, despite the signed law.
On March 2, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the version of the COVID-19 laboratory leak is real, but not definitive. He also acknowledged that the United States found no evidence that the emergence of the coronavirus is associated with the intention of any country to create a biological weapon.
The day before, US FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency considers the most likely version of the laboratory origin of the coronavirus. He also noted that the Chinese government is trying to interfere with work to establish the causes of the pandemic.
On February 26, The Wall Street Journal wrote that the US Department of Energy was convinced that a leak in a Chinese laboratory was the cause of the coronavirus pandemic. A secret report on the subject was allegedly given to the White House and key members of the US Congress.
In October 2022, a group of German scientists said they had found evidence of a laboratory origin for the coronavirus. According to their study, it is 99.9% an artificial copy of a natural virus.