{"id":539932,"date":"2021-05-25T13:51:22","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T17:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=539932"},"modified":"2021-05-25T13:51:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T17:51:23","slug":"top-biden-official-demands-transparent-probe-of-covid-19-lab-leak-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-biden-official-demands-transparent-probe-of-covid-19-lab-leak-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Biden Official Demands \u2018Transparent\u2019 Probe Of COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftop-biden-official-demands-transparent-probe-of-covid-19-lab-leak-theory%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=539932&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/hhs-2.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A top Biden cabinet member has demanded that the World Health Organization (WHO) \u201cmust\u201d launch a more \u201ctransparent\u201d investigation into the origins of COVID-19 as Republican lawmakers demand answers and top scientists admit the virus could have come from a Chinese lab.<\/p>\n<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Tuesday said in an address to the World Health Assembly, a conference organized by the WHO, that independent experts worldwide must be allowed to \u201cfully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe COVID-19 pandemic not only stole a year from our lives, it stole millions of lives,\u201d Becerra said. \u201cNow we must honor our departed by taking urgent action this year \u2014 to strengthen health security and pandemic preparedness so that we are better prepared for the next global health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must also do more to understand our current pandemic,\u201d he said. \u201cPhase 2 of the COVID origins study must be launched with terms of reference that are transparent, science-based, and give international experts the independence to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republican lawmakers have long insisted that the government should investigate the theory that the virus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Last week GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee claimed that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/house-republicans-claim-circumstantial-evidence-shows-covid-19-came-from-chinese-lab-demand-investigation\">significant circumstantial evidence<\/a>\u201d exists showing that the virus first emerged from a leak at China\u2019s Wuhan Institute of Virology.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers, headed by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who is the top Republican on the committee, said in a report obtained by Fox News that China has not cooperated with efforts to find out where the virus originated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInternational efforts to discover the true source of the virus, however, have been stymied by a lack of cooperation from the People\u2019s Republic of China,\u201d \u200bthey wrote\u200b in the report\u200b.&nbsp;\u201cNevertheless, significant circumstantial evidence raises serious concerns that the COVID-19 outbreak may have been a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n<p>The report also said the People\u2019s Republic of China\u2019s (PRC) military had \u201cinvolvement\u201d in the lab and rejected the long-reported claim that the virus came from bats. \u201cBy contrast, little circumstantial evidence has emerged to support the PRC\u2019s claim that COVID-19 was a natural occurrence, having jumped from some other species to human,\u201d \u200bthe lawmakers wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week it is possible the virus had a \u201clab-based origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky how she thinks the pandemic began. \u201cI don\u2019t believe I\u2019ve seen enough data, individual data for me to be able to comment on that,\u201d Walensky said.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy then asked about the \u201cpossibilities\u201d of where the virus originated: \u201cCertainly the possibilities of, that most coronaviruses that we know of are of origin from, that have infected the population \u2014 SARS CoV-1, MERS \u2014 generally come from an animal origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre there any other possibilities?\u201d Kennedy asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCertainly a lab-based origin is one possibility,\u201d Walensky said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joseph Curl covered the White House for a dozen years and ran the Drudge Report for four years. He can be reached at josephcurl@dailywire.com and on Twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/josephcurl\">@JosephCurl<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A top Biden cabinet member has demanded that the World Health Organization (WHO) \u201cmust\u201d launch a more \u201ctransparent\u201d investigation into the origins of COVID-19 as Republican lawmakers demand answers and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2312964,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/hhs-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Top Biden Official Demands \u2018Transparent\u2019 Probe Of COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/hhs-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Top Biden Official Demands \u2018Transparent\u2019 Probe Of COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2312964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}