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Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken called the first WHO study on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic “extremely incomplete” and said G7 leaders would insist on China’s cooperation with a second WHO study.
“WHO, you’re right, the first study they did was very incomplete,” Blinken told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. “The leaders of the Group of Seven came together with the insistence that China cooperate with the so-called phase two study conducted by the World Health Organization to get to the bottom of what happened. But this is not enough.
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“We need to know what really happened. We need accountability, but we also need to understand what happened, why it happened, how it happened, if we’re going to be able to take the necessary measures to prevent it from happening again, or at least in a better place to mitigate the next pandemic.” If we can’t completely prevent it from happening,” Blinken continued.
Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi, head of Beijing’s Central Committee for Foreign Affairs, told Blinken Friday that the Wuhan lab leak theory is a “ridiculous story,” according to Chinese state media.
Security personnel gather near the entrance to the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a visit by a World Health Organization team in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, Wednesday, February 3, 2021 (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (AP)
President Biden has tasked the intelligence community with getting to the truth of the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.
“He ordered back in March that we try to identify for ourselves the origins of COVID-19,” Blinken said. “We came up with two plausible explanations: one is a so-called natural occurrence; … the other is a lab leak. But we were unable to determine with any degree of certainty that was.”
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In May, Biden issued a public statement saying that US intelligence agencies had “combined about two possible scenarios for the ‘origins of the pandemic,’ including whether it resulted from human contact with an infected animal or from a lab accident,” and asked for “additional follow-up.”
Biden said the president has asked the intelligence community to “redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that can bring us closer to a final conclusion, and to report back to us within 90 days.”
It is unclear what action the United States will take depending on the findings of the investigation.
“Will the president seek to punish China?” Fox News’ Peter Dossey asked White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre in May.
“We are not going there yet,” said Jean-Pierre. “We have to go through a 90-day review. Once the 90-day review is completed, we will be able to re-evaluate.”
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Ducey pressed again: “If another nation were either responsible or knew more than they allowed… what would the president do?”
Jean-Pierre said: “I will not prejudge. I will not make a statement until … we know what will happen after this 90-day review.”
Brooke Singman of Fox News contributed to this report.
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