President Joe Biden signs legislation to declassify info on origin of COVID-19 pandemic

March 20 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden signed legislation Monday to declassify information relating to the origin of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, which calls on the Director of National Intelligence to declassify "certain information" about COVID-19's origins, received unanimous support from the House and Senate.

"I share the Congress's goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In 2021, I directed the Intelligence Community to use every tool at its disposal to investigate the origin of COVID-19, and that work is ongoing," Biden said in a statement. "We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19's origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics."

The question of COVID-19's origins has been hotly debated since the start of the global pandemic more than three years ago. Theories have included suggestions that the virus was engineered in a laboratory, transmitted to humans by a bat or the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 correlates with 5G mobile network technology.

In the study of prevailing conspiracy theories about COVID-19 in the journal Social Science & Medicine, researchers in Ireland argued that these theories have serious consequences for "civic and public well-being."

"Adherence, belief, and even exposure to conspiracy theories is associated with declining civic engagement, as well as racial and socio-economic prejudices and violence," the researchers said in their report.

In Biden's statement, he said his administration will continue to review all information relating to COVID-19's origins, "including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology."

The information ordered to be declassified will be made available within 90 days, according to Politico.

This story has been updated to correct attribution about the study cited.