G7 leaders renew call for investigating origin of coronavirus

G7 leaders call for investigation into coronavirus origins Group of Seven (G-7) leaders on Sunday called for a renewed, "transparent" investigation into the origins of the coronavirus and pledged to give 1 billion vaccine doses to countries in need as their Brett Samuels TheHill

Group of Seven (G-7) leaders on Sunday called for a renewed, "transparent" investigation into the origins of the coronavirus and pledged to give 1 billion vaccine doses to countries in need as their weekend of meetings in the United Kingdom came to an end.

President Biden joined the leaders of the U.K., Italy, Germany, Canada, Japan and France in signing a joint communique that addressed the group's commitments on the pandemic, climate change, ransomware and corruption.

The leaders called for a "timely, transparent, expert-led, and science-based [World Health Organization]-convened Phase 2 COVID-19 Origins study including, as recommended by the experts’ report, in China."

Focus on the virus' origins has become a point of interest in the United States as lawmakers and some public health experts have started to seriously entertain the possibility the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China. But Republicans in particular have criticized any WHO involvement, arguing the organization is unable to fully and fairly investigate China, especially when Beijing has refused to cooperate.

Biden previously ordered his intelligence community to further investigate the origins and submit a report in the coming months outlining the most likely origin scenario. ...