Biden Orders Intel Officials to Report on COVID Origin Within 90 Days

President Biden on Wednesday said that as U.S. intelligence officials have “coalesced around two likely scenarios” for how COVID-19 originated, he has tasked the intelligence community with redoubling their investigative efforts to bring the U.S. closer to a “definitive conclusion” within 90 days.

The president noted that when the virus first emerged he called on the CDC, as a presidential candidate, to “get access to China to learn about the virus so we could fight it more effectively.” 

“The failure to get our inspectors on the ground in those early months will always hamper any investigation into the origin of COVID-19,” Biden said in a statement on Wednesday. 

He said he had his national security advisor direct the intelligence community to prepare a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of COVID-19 in March, “including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.”