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News analysis - Coronavirus: US-China relations
Behind the resurgence of Covid-19 'lab leak theory' in America
While the US is trying to score points at China's expense, that does not negate its worries, say analysts
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The WHO investigation team arriving by car at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in February. Although a joint report by the WHO and China scientists in March dismissed a laboratory accident as "extremely unlikely", it was criticised - including by the US - for being insufficiently independent and having limited access to certain data.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
President Joe Biden on Wednesday directed United States intelligence agencies to further investigate the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19, which will include addressing whether it emerged in China from human contact with an infected animal or from a lab accident.
No definitive conclusion has been reached, and the intelligence community does not believe it has sufficient information to favour one scenario over the other, Mr Biden said in a statement.
