President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Saturday that the administration is concerned by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why it matters: Sullivan said the administration fears the Chinese government may have intervened or altered the findings of the investigation.
Context: On the first day of his administration, Biden acted to return the U.S. to the WHO. The Trump administration had started a withdrawal from the organization in July 2020.
- WHO teams last month conducted the investigation in Wuhan, China, where the virus first emerged.
- The investigation had been agreed to last May, but it was delayed after Chinese officials withheld authorization to allow the international team’s scheduled visit.
- The delay drew a rare rebuke from WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO team concluded that it’s “extremely unlikely” the virus came from a laboratory accident, and that it most likely jumped to humans via an intermediate species.
Read more at Axios.
{Matzav.com}
