President Joe Biden's decision to announce an intensified 90-day review into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic came about in part because of the Chinese government's refusal to participate in an investigation by the World Health Organization, a source familiar with the decision told NBC News.
Biden released a statement Wednesday asking the intelligence community to redouble its efforts to get to the bottom of the origins of COVID-19, after new reports raised questions about whether it spread from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
The source said the genesis of Biden's ask goes back weeks, after he'd received information on the matter that he'd asked for in March, the source said. The information was in the President's Daily Brief, the highly classified briefing prepared for the president by the intelligence community.
Biden asked if he could declassify some of the report without compromising sources and methods so the White House could share the information publicly, the source said.
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