Biden needs help from Merkel, Macron and others to avoid another pandemic

The possibility that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan research laboratory is not something from the fever dreams of conspiracy theory: No less a fixture of the establishment than Anthony Fauci himself says he is “not convinced” the virus emerged naturally from contact with animals. President Joe Biden has ordered an investigation, of sorts, into the question. 

The evidence is far from conclusive. And that is the problem — it’s going to stay inconclusive without a real investigation, something that neither the bosses in Beijing nor the bureaucrats of the World Health Organization can promise with any credibility.  The 90-day review Biden has requested from the US intelligence community is not the kind of investigation that’s needed. Without access to the relevant data in China, this “investigation” will amount to a review of the intelligence that already is available. The problem is not that US authorities have not been looking into what happened in Wuhan — we can safely assume that project got ample encouragement from former President Donald Trump, who loved to speak of the “China virus.” The problem is that Beijing is obstructing international efforts to study the origin of COVID-19 and must be persuaded to cooperate.