The President of the United States, Joe Biden, signed the Origin of COVID-19 Act allowing this Monday. declassify information Relating to the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The law was already passed by Congress, but so far the White House has expressed doubts about the possibility of this being approved by the president.
“We need to get to the root of COVID-19. ensuring we can prevent future pandemics“My administration will continue to review all confidential information regarding the origins of COVID-19, including possible association with COVID-19,” Biden said in a statement. Wuhan Institute of Virology“, added.
This new arrangement will allow “declassify and share as much information as possible” taking into account the president’s power to “avoid disclosure of information that could affect national security”. Biden also reminded that he ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the origin of the virus in 2021.
This law is the result of the Republican senator’s proposal. Josh Hawley and plans to order the director of National Intelligence of the virus to “declassify all information regarding possible links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the source of the virus.”
This includes “activities carried out by the Wuhan Institute of Virology in cooperation with or for the Chinese Army” and “coronavirus research or other related activities It was carried out at the Wuhan Institute of Virology before the onset of COVID-19 infections”.
The bill was passed shortly after the Department of Energy report was published. a leak from the lab Although the White House quickly clarified that there is no clear consensus on this issue, it is seen as the most likely cause of the outbreak.
republican party It has repeatedly cited a leak from a Chinese laboratory as the source of the outbreak, but US officials have generally been cautious and have also considered the hypothesis of animal-to-human transmission.