Former State Department Official Slams Biden Administration After WHO Announces COVID-19 Origins Probe Reopening

Shortly after the World Health Organization said it would reopen its investigation into the origins of COVID-19, former State Department official Thomas DiNanno criticized the Biden administration for "denying that there is a problem."

On Thursday, DiNanno spoke on "America's Newsroom," accusing the Biden White House of ignoring the entire matter. In September, the WHO stated that it would reopen the investigation into how and when the virus first emerged, as the initial investigation left many issues unanswered.

China has received international pressure, notably from the United States, to review the findings, but it has refused chiefly, as per Fox News. As a result, China has drawn widespread international condemnation, with the lab-leak theory and other concerns about the country's origins largely unanswered.

Biden administration accused of ignoring COVID-19 origins issue

According to the Wall Street Journal, the inquiry would likely include around 20 experts who will focus on gathering more information on the virus's origins.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) may have links to the Chinese government, according to DiNanno.

After reviewing sales data for testing equipment in China, an Australian internet security firm reported that coronavirus was "spreading virulently in Wuhan" by mid-2019.

After analyzing 1,716 procurement contracts for equipment potentially used to test for COVID-19 in Hubei province, Internet 2.0, located in Canberra, came to a devastating conclusion.

The allegations add to a growing body of evidence that the Chinese authorities suppressed information and even outright misled about many aspects of the deadly virus. The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese army, the local disease prevention center, and a local university all had "abnormal and significant increases" in equipment, according to Internet 2.0's white, Procuring for a Pandemic.

Per Daily Mail, the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 4.5 million people over the previous 22 months, and it has irrevocably harmed companies, cost governments trillions, and dominated government policy in nearly every country on earth.

US, China presidents to conduct virtual summit

According to a former White House official, a summit between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping might be the only option to go forward in the strategic struggle between the world's two largest economies.

Former President Barack Obama's senior Asia-Pacific adviser, Evan Medeiros, believes that only Beijing's top leadership can assist in resolving the most difficult problems at the heart of the US-China rivalry.

On Wednesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi met in Zurich, Switzerland, for high-level talks. That was their first face-to-face meeting since a March meeting in Alaska, which began with an unusual public airing of both sides' concerns.

Both parties struck an "agreement in principle" to have a virtual meeting between Biden and Xi during the discussions in Zurich, sources told CNBC's Kayla Tausche on Wednesday.

In recent years, relations between the United States and China have remained tense. Both sides have had disagreements on various topics, including trade and technology, human rights, and the origins of COVID-19.

However, analysts say that although communication between the two nations appears to be improving, bilateral relations are not on the verge of a "grand thawing."

The projected Biden-Xi virtual meeting, according to Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, suggests a "limited thaw" in bilateral ties. However, he believes it will contribute to stabilizing the US-China competition and avoiding accidents.