Biden will make Covid intelligence public.

US President Joe Biden has signed a bill that directs the federal government to declassify material related to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the White House suggesting "potential links" between the virus and a high-security research lab in China. The law requires the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to release information on the origins of the health crisis, and states that a declassified report must be forwarded to lawmakers within 90 days. Biden noted that the intelligence community would share "as much of that information as possible," but also invoked his power to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security. The White House has refused to reveal whether Vice President Joe Biden supported the bill, which would allow the US to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. A number of senior officials have suggested the virus may have originated from a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

The Department of Energy has changed its position on the origins question, now supporting the lab leak theory, but only with "low confidence." At least four other US federal agencies and a "national intelligence panel" have judged that the pandemic likely spread from animals to humans by natural means, while two remain undecided. Beijing has repeatedly denied claims that the virus escaped from the biosafety level 4 lab, and has accused Washington of spreading myths about the pandemic.