March 23, 2023

President Joe Biden signs legislation to declassify info on origin of COVID-19 pandemic

President Joe Biden signed legislation Monday to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, which calls on the Director of National Intelligence to declassify "certain information" about COVID-19's origins, received unanimous support from 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 COVID-19, 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."

The question of COVID-19's origins has been hotly debated since the start of the global pandemic more than three years ago. Theories have included suggestions that the virus was engineered in a laboratory, transmitted to humans by a bat or the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 correlates with 5G mobile network technology.

In the study of prevailing conspiracy theories about COVID-19 in the journal Social Science & Medicine, researchers in Ireland argued that these theories have serious consequences for "civic and public well-being."

"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 researchers said in their 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.

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