Until today, it is still unknown how the COVID-19 pandemic began in Wuhan, China last 2019. With Joe Biden raising concerns about China’s transparency, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also joined in on the conversation, echoing the US President’s call for China to turn over all of its related information to the World Health Organization.
Johnson was interviewed by CBS over the weekend where he was pressed on whether or not he agreed with the Biden administration’s calls for China to be completely transparent in turning over all of its related information to the WHO. This also comes as Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan expressed concerns regarding the preliminary findings by the WHO as well as how it reached the organization. Sullivan noted that it is necessary for the report to be completely transparent and free from any changes made by the Chinese government.
“When you have a zoonotic plague like coronavirus, we need to know exactly how it happened,” said Johnson. “Indeed if it’s zoonotic, if it really originated from human contact with the animal kingdom, that’s what is asserted. But we need to know exactly what happened. Was it in a wet market? Did it come from the bats? Were the bats associated with the pangolins? All these questions are now matters of speculation. We need to see the data. We need to see all the evidence. So I thoroughly support what President Biden has said about that.”
Biden is also focused on getting COVID-19 relief to families that have been severely affected by the pandemic despite the increase in vaccinations. This week, the White House announced that Biden will be holding a virtual meeting with the major economies in the world to discuss the pandemic and global distribution of the vaccine.
During the meeting, Biden is set to address the need for a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen millions infected and hundreds of thousands of people dead all over the world. Biden is also set to have the US re-engage with other countries, showing a stark contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump, who has adopted an isolationist approach from his America First policy.