Biden accuses China of withholding “crucial information” on the origin of Covid-19

The president of USA, Joe Biden, accused on Friday China of withholding “crucial information” about the origins of the covid-19, after hearing a report from the intelligence services that does not resolve the issue of the emergence of the virus.

“There is crucial information about the origins of this pandemic in the People’s Republic of China, but from the beginning, Chinese government officials have worked to prevent international researchers and members of the global public health community from accessing it,” said Biden in a statement.

“To this day, the People’s Republic of China continues to reject calls for transparency and withholding information, even as the number of victims of this pandemic continues to rise,” he added.

The classified report was delivered Tuesday to Biden, who had given the US intelligence services 90 days to “redouble their efforts” to explain the origin of covid-19.

In reaction, the embassy of China in Washington he accused the US intelligence services of “political manipulation”.

“The report of the American intelligence community shows that the United States is determined to go down the wrong path of political manipulation,” the embassy said in a statement.

The text “it only serves to make China a scapegoat ”, he continued.

The covid-19 virus was not developed “as a biological weapon”, and “probably” was not “genetically” engineered, the report had concluded, according to the summary that was made public.

But the American intelligence community remains divided on whether the first case was caused by natural exposure to an infected animal, or by a laboratory accident.

Specifically, four US intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council believe with “a low degree of confidence” that the animal hypothesis is the most “likely”.

To justify their assessment, they rely in particular on the “many animal exposure vectors” that exist, as well as ignorance of China of the existence of the virus before its appearance.

“The US intelligence community believes that Chinese officials had no prior knowledge of the virus prior to the start of the epidemic.” Says the summary.

However, another intelligence agency considers with “a moderate level of confidence” that the thesis of a laboratory leak will be privileged, “probably” through “experiments, the handling of animals, or samples of the Wuhan Institute of Virology”.

Finally, three other agencies do not comment on one or the other of the hypotheses.

The intelligence services are considered “unable to provide a more definitive explanation” of the origin of COVID-19 without “new information” provided by China, according to the summary released.

Almost 4.5 million have died from covid-19 since the World Health Organization office in China reported the onset of the disease in December 2019.