Once dismissed by most public health experts and government officials, the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab is now receiving scrutiny under a new U.S. investigation.
have publicly pushed for further investigation into virus origins, as have scientists and the World Health Organization.
Biden ordered a review of what the White House said was an initial finding leading to “two likely scenarios,” an animal-to-human transmission or a lab leak. The White House statement says two agencies in the 18-member intelligence community lean toward the hypothesis of a transmission in nature; another agency leans toward a lab leak.
David Feith, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under Trump, said he supported Biden’s call for an enhanced review. “Implicit in the president’s statement is that there is more to analyze and more to collect than has been analyzed or collected to date," Feith said.The White House statement criticized China for a lack of transparency, echoing previous criticisms by Democrats and Republicans.
“The problem is when you make that announcement in a highly politicized environment, it makes it even less likely that China will cooperate with efforts to find the origins of the virus,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.The most compelling argument for investigating the possibility of a lab leak is not any new hard evidence, but rather the fact that another pathway for virus spread has not been 100% confirmed.
For example, scientists never confirmed the origin of smallpox before the disease was eradicated through a global vaccination program. Republicans have pressed for more inquiries into a possible lab leak as part of a broader effort to blame China and vindicate Trump's handling of the pandemic. Nearly 600,000 people in the United States have died of COVID-19, the highest toll of any country.Many scientists caution that it's unlikely a 90-day investigation will yield definitive new answers.
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