Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
US Looking At More Unexamined Data On Wuhan Lab
The New York Times: U.S. Is Said To Have Unexamined Intelligence To Pore Over On Virus Origins
President Biden’s call for a 90-day sprint to understand the origins of the coronavirus pandemic came after intelligence officials told the White House they had a raft of still-unexamined evidence that required additional computer analysis that might shed light on the mystery, according to senior administration officials. The officials declined to describe the new evidence. But the revelation that they are hoping to apply an extraordinary amount of computer power to the question of whether the virus accidentally leaked from a Chinese laboratory suggests that the government may not have exhausted its databases of Chinese communications, the movement of lab workers and the pattern of the outbreak of the disease around the city of Wuhan. (Barnes and Sanger, 5/27)
Reuters: U.S. Intelligence Community Acknowledges Two Theories Of Coronavirus Origin
The U.S. intelligence community on Thursday acknowledged its agencies had two theories on where the coronavirus originated, with two agencies believing it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals and a third embracing a possible laboratory accident as the source of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The U.S. Intelligence Community does not know exactly where, when, or how the COVID-19 virus was transmitted initially but has coalesced around two likely scenarios," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said, adding that the majority believes there is not "sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other." (5/27)
The Wall Street Journal: Time Is Running Out In Covid-19 Origins Inquiry, Say WHO-Led Team Members
Members of a World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of Covid-19 urged the United Nations agency’s member states to mandate a second phase of research, warning that time was running out to examine blood samples and other important clues in China regarding when, how and where the pandemic started. The researchers also called for the U.S. to share with the WHO any intelligence supporting the hypothesis that the Covid-19 virus might have spilled from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, saying they had already unsuccessfully asked Washington for that information. The first confirmed cases of Covid-19 emerged in Wuhan in December 2019. (Page and Hinshaw, 5/27)
CNN: China Counters Biden's Covid Origins Wuhan Lab Probe ... By Calling For A US Lab Probe
Naturally, that's drawn the ire of Beijing -- again -- and prompted it to renew a counter-conspiracy theory that the virus actually started in the US. "The US doesn't care about facts or truth at all, neither is it interested in a serious scientific study on the origins. Its only aim is to use the pandemic for stigmatization and political manipulation to shift the blame," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian. (Gan and Yeung, 5/28)
The New Yorker: The Sudden Rise Of The Coronavirus Lab-Leak Theory
Scientists and political commentators are no longer dismissing the possibility that COVID-19 emerged from a Chinese laboratory. What changed? (Wallace-Wells, 5/27)
NPR: Why A Lab In Wuhan Is Worth A Closer Look As A Possible Source Of The Pandemic
Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious disease expert who served on the Biden transition team's COVID-19 advisory board, agrees. Even if the Wuhan Institute of Virology is the less likely origin of the outbreak, "this needs more investigation," she said Thursday in an interview with NPR's Rachel Martin on Morning Edition. "And saying that this needs more investigation doesn't mean the virus leaked from a lab. But we need to investigate that and figure that out because it really does have implications for how we'll prevent the next pandemic." (Schneider, 5/27)
