In order to declassify information about the COVID-19 pandemic origins, President Joe Biden signed legislation on Monday.
The COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, which demands that the Director of National Intelligence declassify “certain information” regarding COVID-19’s origins, has received the support of both the House and Senate.
“I share the Congress’s goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In 2021, I directed the Intelligence Community to use every tool at its disposal to investigate the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that work is ongoing,” Biden said in a statement. “We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19’s origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics.”
Since the beginning of the global pandemic more than three years ago, the issue of COVID-19’s origins has been the subject of intense discussion. One conspiracy theory claims that COVID-19 is related to 5G mobile network technology, while another contends that the virus was created in a lab and spread to people by a bat.
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The National Center for Biotechnology Information’s Library of Medicine asserted that popular COVID-19 conspiracy theories have detrimental effects on “civic and public well-being” in a study of these theories.
“Adherence, belief, and even exposure to conspiracy theories is associated with declining civic engagement, as well as racial and socio-economic prejudices and violence,” the center said in its report.
In Biden’s statement, he said his administration will continue to review all information relating to COVID-19’s origins, “including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
The information ordered to be declassified will be made available within 90 days, according to Politico.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
