Covid-19: Biden accuses China of hiding information on “origins of pandemic”

Published on : 08/27/2021 – 10:47 PM

The Covid-19 virus was not developed “as a biological weapon” and “probably” was not “genetically” designed: these are the conclusions of US intelligence, according to the summary of a report published on Friday August 27 . The origin of this new coronavirus, which appeared at the end of 2019 in China, remains an enigma, however. Animal-borne infection? Laboratory accident? US intelligence is divided and does not have a clear and definite answer.

In a statement released after the publication of the investigation report he himself requested in the spring, Joe Biden accused China of withholding “crucial information on the origins of the pandemic”. This information “exists”, believes the head of state, “and yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and global public health actors from accessing it.”

The words of the American president recall the complaints of the World Health Organization (WHO), which has repeatedly urged Beijing to provide all possible information and to authorize it to conduct a new investigation on its territory, after the one conducted in January 2021. China once again rejected an umpteenth request in mid-August.

“To this day, China continues to reject calls for transparency and to hide information, even as the toll of this pandemic continues to climb,” says Joe Biden, who had already raised his voice on May 26. vis-à-vis Beijing. According to data collected by theJohns Hopkins University, SARS-CoV-2 has claimed the lives of more than 4.4 million people worldwide. More than 215 million humans have already contracted it.

With AFP