Biden signs bill to declassify information related to origins of Covid

US President Joe Biden on Monday signed a Bill, the "COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023", that requires the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information related to the origins of COVID.

The US President in a statement on Monday said: "My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID-19's origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology; will declassify & share as much of that information as possible."

"Today, I am pleased to sign into law S. 619, the "COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023." I share the Congress's goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In 2021, I directed the Intelligence Community to use every tool at its disposal to investigate the origin of COVID-19, and that work is ongoing," Biden said in a statement released by The White House.

"We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19's origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics. My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID-19's origins, including 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, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security," the US President further said according to The White House release.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has rebuked Chinese officials for withholding scientific research that may reveal the origin of coronavirus, The New York Times reported.

The WHO, on Friday (Local time) also asked the Chinese official about the reasons behind not revealing the data three years ago and why, after it was published online in January, it could not be found now.

Before the data got vanished into the internet space, an international team of virus experts downloaded and began analysing the research. The team revealed that the data supports the idea that the pandemic could have begun from the illegally traded raccoon dogs, which infected the humans at China's Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.

But the team couldn't reach the final result as the gene sequences were removed from a scientific database once the experts offered to collaborate on the analysis with their Chinese counterparts, according to The New York Times.

"These data could have -- and should have -- been shared three years ago," Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director general, said. The missing evidence now "needs to be shared with the international community immediately," he said.