US House Votes To Declassify COVID Origins; Biden Pressured (Video)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – American President Joe Biden came under pressure Friday after the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to force the White House to declassify the origins of COVID-19.
Under the bill, which requires Biden’s signature, the Director of National Intelligence must reveal all the backgrounds of the coronavirus illness that claimed millions of lives worldwide.
Friday’s 419-0 vote followed new assessments from the Department of Energy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that a lab leak in China was a likely source of the pandemic.
Fresh intelligence reportedly suggested an incident happened at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray earlier this month.
The legislation, which passed in a 419-0 vote, was sponsored by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. It already passed the Senate by unanimous consent.
“This is a great first step in holding China accountable for this crisis, and I urge President Biden to sign it immediately. The American people deserve to know the truth,” Hawley said in reaction to its passage in the House.
BIDEN RELUCTANT
President Biden did not indicate he would veto the bill, meaning it was due to become law. The official release of the information would be required within 90 days after the bill is signed into law, Worthy News learned.
The Biden administration had so far been reluctant to publish all findings amid concerns it could further upset China after military tensions over Taiwan and trade disputes.
Critics have also linked Biden’s reluctance to publish details about the origins of COVID-19 to the family’s controversial past business deals with the Communist-run nation, charges the president strongly denies.
Additionally, Biden’s former chief medical adviser and ally, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the lab leak allegedly occurred.
Officially the White House had said there was “no consensus” across the U.S. government when the pandemic began.
This week an angry Fauci accused former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director (CDC) Dr. Robert Redfield of lying in front of the U.S. Congress. “He is totally and unequivocally incorrect in what he’s saying that I excluded him,” Fauci said.
DIRECTOR ‘SIDELINED’
The former director alleged that he was “sidelined” by Fauci from internal debates about the origin of COVID-19 for pushing the lab leak theory. “I didn’t know I was excluded… until the [Freedom Of Information Act] FOIA came out with the emails,” Redfield testified during a Congressional hearing on March 8.
A joint China-World Health Organization (WHO) investigation in 2021 called the lab leak theory “extremely unlikely.”
However, the WHO investigation was intensely criticized, and its director-general has since called for a new inquiry, saying: “All hypotheses remain open and require further study.”
The U.S. bill is seen as a crucial step in that process.