When Joe Biden received the situation report from the intelligence services at the White House two weeks ago, it also included the assessment of the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The American President requested this in March.

The result: the intelligence services had not reached a consensus.

A discussion ensued as to whether this finding, which was classified as secret, should be made public, at least in part.

A statement was prepared and presented to Biden these days: There are two likely scenarios - animal-to-human transmission and spread through a laboratory accident.

There is no clear conclusion from the services.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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    Since this assessment would not be of any clarification from the President's point of view, he initially decided not to publish it, as reported by American media.

    When China made it clear at the beginning of the week that it would not participate in further investigations by the World Health Authority (WHO), Biden decided to change course.

    On Wednesday, he released a statement saying he had directed his intelligence services to step up their efforts and submit another report within 90 days.

    It also said the United States was working with like-minded partners around the world to urge China to be transparent and gain access to data.

    So far, the White House had denied the need for an investigation of its own.

    The WHO is the right place for this.

    This fit in with the Democrat's line of strengthening multilateral institutions after the Trump era.

    Biden's predecessor Donald Trump had announced that he would withdraw from the WHO, which he considered to be an instrument of Beijing.

    Biden revised this.

    And although his government generally wants to confront China tougher, he adopted a different tone with regard to the pandemic: He reiterated his criticism that the People's Republic of America has not granted access to American experts from the Centers of Disease Control.

    But he rejected Trump's “China virus” talk.

    Anthony Fauci also reacts

    The instruction to the intelligence services to conduct its own investigation represents a change of course. As recently as Tuesday, Health Minister Xavier Becerra, during a virtual WHO meeting, urged the authority in Geneva to expand its investigations.

    The background to the panning is certainly the walls of China and the frustration with the WHO.

    But Biden also has to take note that the mood is turning on Capitol Hill.

    His statement on Wednesday also said that he had asked the services to provide full information to Congress.

    So far, it has only been Republicans, especially those from the Trumpist camp, who have repeatedly taken up the laboratory thesis that the coronavirus was released by an accident at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan - which Beijing denies.