WASHINGTON – United States President Joe Biden yesterday said China is withholding “critical information” on the origins of Covid-19 after the US intelligence community said it does not believe the virus is a bioweapon – but remains split on whether it escaped from a lab.
The US, however, does not believe Chinese officials had foreknowledge of the virus before the initial outbreak of the pandemic that has now claimed 4.5 million lives across the world, according to an unclassified summary of an eagerly awaited intelligence report.
“Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it,” said Biden in a statement.
“To this day, the PRC continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information, even as the toll of this pandemic continues to rise.”
US intelligence has ruled out that the coronavirus was developed as a weapon, and most agencies have assessed with “low confidence” that it was not genetically engineered.
But, the community remains divided on the pathogen’s origins, with four agencies and the National Intelligence Council judging in favour of natural exposure to an animal as the likely explanation, and one organisation favouring the lab-leak theory.
Three agencies were unable to reach a conclusion.
“Variations in analytic views largely stem from differences in how agencies weigh intelligence reporting and scientific publications, and intelligence and scientific gaps,” said the summary.
The intelligence community and global scientists lack clinical samples or epidemiological data from the earliest Covid-19 cases, it added.
Biden said the US will continue to work with allies to press Beijing to share more information and cooperate with the World Health Organisation.
“We must have a full and transparent accounting of this global tragedy. Nothing less is acceptable.” – AFP, August 28, 2021
