American citizens will finally be let in on the details of the pandemic. The relevant intelligence reports must be declassified, according to legislation that President Biden signed into law.
In response to this, Sen.Josh Hawley said in a tweet that it was time to hold federal bureaucrats accountable.
The newly signed COVID-19 Origin Act of 2024 lets the general public know how much information regarding the virus outbreak was known to the government. The bill that was signed by President Joe Biden requires the release of data on the potential links connecting the COVID-19 pandemic and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The Republican is one of several who is urging Congress to disclose the knowledge that the federal government had at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 when the coronavirus began rapidly spreading throughout the US.
POTUS has proceeded to sign the bill stating that the administration would let out as many intelligence materials as possible without harming national security. He claimed that he shares the same view as Congress in matters of transparency between the government and the citizens about the origin of the COVID-19 virus. The president has reported that since taking office, he had “directed the intelligence community to use every tool at its disposal” to find the virus’s origin.
COVID-19 Origin Act of 2024-The Bill sent to Biden
Congress unanimously agreed earlier this month to send Biden the bill that Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley originally co-sponsored with Sens. Mike Braun of Indiana, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Mike Lee of Utah, and Rick Scott of Florida. They’re all Republicans.
The measure mandates that “any and all material regarding potential linkages between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 be made public by the director of national intelligence within 90 days.”
This bill was one of the first to be signed by Biden since the 118th Congress split the two parties between January.
COVID-19 Origin Act of 2024 – Implications of the Bill
POTUS said that by implementing the bill, his administration will declassify and possibly let out all information as long as it does not harm the security of his nation.
Biden faces political risks because he is attempting to navigate a challenging relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Beijing adamantly denies that the global epidemic may have been started by a breach that occurred during lab research in Wuhan. But, a large portion of Congress wants to investigate the theory further, and the problem has emerged as a focal topic for Biden’s Republican rivals.
Earlier this month, the law was passed by the House and delivered to Biden.
According to government estimates, the Covid-19 outbreak, which was initially discovered in 2019 in the city of Wuhan in eastern China, has resulted in over a million deaths globally, including over 7 million in the US.
There are conflicting opinions however regarding how the pandemic started. Some scientists have promoted the theory that the virus was unintentionally released from the Wuhan Institute of virology, but others claim that the evidence favors the hypothesis that an animal infected a human first. Genetic evidence points to a connection between the virus and racoon dogs, a group of virus scientists reported last week.
The United State Energy Department, one of the US agencies looking into the catastrophe, came to the “low confidence” judgment that the virus most likely originated in a lab, concurring with the FBI’s assessment but differing from the findings of numerous other agencies.
