■ China accused the Biden administration of playing politics in its call for an inquiry into the pandemic’s origins.
President calls for bolstered search for coronavirus origins
China on Thursday accused the Biden administration of playing politics and shirking its responsibility in calling for a renewed investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that was first detected in China in late 2019.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing that President Joe Biden’s order showed the U.S. “does not care about facts and truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing.”
Biden told U.S. intelligence officials to redouble their efforts to investigate the origins of the pandemic, including any possibility the trail might lead to a Chinese laboratory.
After months of minimizing that possibility as a fringe theory, the Biden administration is joining worldwide pressure on China to be more open about the outbreak.
Zhao also said the U.S. must open itself up to investigations into its biological laboratories.
“The U.S. side claims that it wants China to participate in a comprehensive, transparent, evidence-based international investigation,” Zhao said. “We would like to ask the U.S. side to do the same as China and immediately cooperate with the World Health Organization on origin tracing research in a scientific manner.”
Biden on Wednesday asked U.S. intelligence agencies to report back within 90 days. He called on China to cooperate with international probes into the origins of the pandemic.
In other developments:
■ Israel welcomed its first group of foreign tourists since largely shutting down air travel because of the coronavirus pandemic more than a year ago. Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-hacohen welcomed a group of Christian theology students from Missouri, telling them: “Everything is open here, from restaurants to hotels, to resorts to holy places.”
■ Two vaccines made by China’s Sinopharm appear to be safe and effective against COVID-19, according to a study published in a medical journal. The report, published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded the two vaccines are about 73 percent and 78 percent effective, as Sinopharm has previously claimed.
■ Prime Minister Boris Johnson has rejected claims by his former chief aide that he botched Britain’s coronavirus response and is unfit for office.
■ Australia’s second-largest city was set to enter its fourth lockdown Thursday as concern grew over the rapid spread of infections from a coronavirus variant. The seven-day lockdown for Melbourne and the rest of Victoria state comes after a new cluster in the city rose to 26 infections, including a person who was in intensive care. Another 10,000 people have had some degree of contact with those already infected.