Last Wednesday, the White House released a statement by the president, ordering an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, which was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. alone.
Back in March, Biden had directed the National Security Advisor and the Intel Community to prepare a report on their analysis of the origin of the virus.
“I received that report earlier this month,” Biden said in the statement, “and asked for additional follow-up.”
The report, according Biden, was not clear on how the virus had originated, whether it was natural or man-made.
“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has coalesced around two likely scenarios, but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question. Here is their current position: “while two elements in the IC leans more toward the latter – each with low or moderate confidence – the majority do not believe there is sufficient information to access one to be more likely than the other.”
Last Thursday, Biden was asked by reporters if he was going to release the report. “Yes, unless there’s something I’m unaware of,” he said.
Via statement last Thursday, Amanda Schoch, spokesperson for the office of the Director of National Intelligence: “The U.S. intelligence community does not know exactly where , when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially. The IC continues to examine all available evidence, consider different perspectives, and aggressively collect and analyse new information to identify the virus’s origins.”
Whether Biden’s decision to investigate the origin of the virus is influenced by the opinion of certain scientists or pressure from Trump allies, is unclear. Republicans have accused Biden and Democrats of refusing to take the conspiracy theory of its origin seriously.
“For over a year anyone asking questions about the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been branded as a conspiracy theorist, Josh Hawley said. “The world needs to know if this pandemic was the product of negligence at the Wuhan lab, but the C.C.P. has done everything it can to block a credible investigation.”
Hawley, who believed the election was rigged in favor of Biden, apparently didn’t feel it was necessary for an investigation into the origin of the virus while Trump held the White House and Republicans controlled the Senate, suddenly now wants an investigation. His priority was playing defense for Trump and the party, spreading conspiracies of a stolen election, and attacking the Democrats and the so-called leftist media for politicizing a virus Republicans and right-wing media downplayed from the beginning.
It should be noted that Hawley and a majority of Republicans have done everything they can to block an investigation into the January 06 insurrection which they incited through incendiary rhetoric, but support an investigation into whether the coronavirus was intentionally or accidentally released from a Wuhan lab, which is, obviously, what they’re hoping for.
Sources: The Week, The NY Times.
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