Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden Urged To Declassify Information On Covid Origins
Reuters: U.S. House Unanimously Backs COVID Origins Information Declassification
The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously on Friday to require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify information on the origins of COVID-19, increasing pressure on President Joe Biden's administration to allow its release. The vote was 419 to 0 in favor. Since the Senate on March 1 passed the bill - by unanimous consent - it now goes to the White House for Biden to sign into law or veto. (Zengerle, 3/10)
AP: House Votes To Declassify Info About Origins Of COVID-19
“I haven’t made that decision yet,” Biden said late Friday when asked whether he would sign the bill. ... If signed into law, the measure would require within 90 days the declassification of “any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease.” That includes information about research and other activities at the lab and whether any researchers grew ill. (Mascaro, 3/10)
Reuters: Finding COVID-19's Origins Is A Moral Imperative - WHO's Tedros
Discovering the origins of COVID-19 is a moral imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, the head of the World Health Organization said, in the clearest indication yet that the U.N. body remains committed to finding how the virus arose. (3/12)
