Biden releases origins of Covid-19

Why is it important: Biden’s signature is another step in being transparent about what the US knows about how the pandemic began.

Some scientists and government agencies speculate that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology unintentionally spread Covid-19 to people in the city where the virus first emerged, while others insist the animal most likely transmitted it to humans.

The US intelligence community is divided over the origin of the pandemic.

The Department of Energy and the FBI recently said they were leaning towards the lab leak hypothesis. The Department of Energy said it did not trust its estimate, while the FBI said its level of confidence was moderate. Other agencies support the natural origin theory.

Wall Street Magazine informed that US intelligence agencies believe that three employees of the laboratory in Wuhan were hospitalized a month before the virus appeared.

Determining that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab would further strain U.S.-China relations and undermine the credibility of top scientists who advocated the natural origin hypothesis.

The World Health Organization has said both possibilities remain on the table.

New Chinese data on genetic samples taken at a food market in Wuhan in January 2020, which Chinese health authorities briefly posted online in mid-March, do not provide a conclusive answer to how the Covid-19 pandemic began. The WHO announced this on Friday. V response to media reports it says the data supports the natural origin hypothesis by linking the virus to raccoon dogs sold on the market.

What’s next: US intelligence agencies will redact their data to protect sources and methods before sharing it with Congress.