Biden has called on officials to “duplicate” efforts to probe the origin of Covid-19

Joe Biden has called on U.S. intelligence agencies to “double” their efforts to investigate the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid renewed questions about the role the lab could play in China.

The U.S. president said Wednesday he asked his officials to find out how the Sars-Cov-2 virus spread to humans within 90 days.

Biden said in a statement: “As of today, the U.S. intelligence community has merged about two likely scenarios, but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question.

“I have now asked the intelligence community to redouble their efforts to gather and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion and to notify me within 90 days.”

A team of scientists from the World Health Organization concluded last year that this was the case very unlikely the disease escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, although the WHO later admitted that Beijing-led research had left some questions unresolved.

Biden added that he would work with allies to further cooperate with an international investigation into how the pressure pandemic began to press China.

Some in the Trump administration have argued that the virus infected humans who participated in the crown experiment with viruses Wuhan Institute, China’s leading biosafety laboratory.

The Chinese government and institute have denied this theory, and many scientists believe that the transmission of animal-humans is a likely explanation.

But questions about the institute’s role resurfaced over the weekend, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that three WIV investigators were ill with the disease in November 2019, a month before the first official case was reported.

Andy Slavitt, one of Biden’s pandemic advisers, on Tuesday reaffirmed the U.S. request for a broader international investigation.

That demand was driven angry response From China, state media described the lab’s escape hypothesis as “a conspiracy created by U.S. intelligence agencies”.