President Joseph Biden has signed legislation demanding the sharing of intelligence data regarding suspected linkages between the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
All US intelligence linked to that link and the origins of COVID-19 must be declassified within 90 days of the law’s passage.
‘We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins,’ Biden wrote in a statement. He noted any released material should also ‘include potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’
‘In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible,’ he added.
The law was passed unanimously in both the House and Senate before being sent to the White House. The bill was introduced by Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley.
With Biden’s signature, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines is now directed to declassify any material gathered by the US intelligence community about the origins of the COVID-19 virus within the next three months.
The controversy in Washington, D.C. concerning China deliberately leaking the virus from a lab in Wuhan has recently re-ignited. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Energy Department determined last month, albeit with skepticism, that the pandemic was most likely caused by the purported Chinese laboratory leak.
Beijing denies this assessment.
The president claims that he believes in Congress’ goal of making available as much information as possible about where and how the coronavirus pandemic originated.
But he claimed that national security risks would still need to be assessed when it came to what his administration decides to release to the public.
‘In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security,’ Biden said in a statement on the declassification.