More than a year after the pussyfooting by Donald Trump, the world is still rather ignorant about the origin of Covid-19. There is a scintilla of hope, therefore, when President Joe Biden orders intelligence officials to “redouble” efforts to investigate the origins of Covid-19, including the theory that it came from a laboratory in China.

The need to clear the fogbound air is dire. And yet in the immediate aftermath of the US President’s order, China has rejected the laboratory theory. In the season of the catastrophe, the ambience has been decidedly vitiated with Beijing’s immediate response ~ “Smear campaigns and blame shifting are making a comeback, and the conspiracy theory of ‘lab leak’ is resurfacing,” its embassy in the US said in a statement on Thursday.

Since it was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, more than 168 million cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed worldwide and at least 3.5 million deaths reported. Initially, Chinese authorities had linked the early cases to a seafood market in Wuhan, leading scientists to evolve the theory that the virus first passed to humans from animals. But recent US media reports have suggested growing evidence that the virus could instead have emerged from a laboratory in China, perhaps through an accidental leak.

Rather than score brownie points in matters diplomatic. the matrix on either side of the Atlantic ought to be based on medical science. In what passes for relative transparency in the US government, the Biden administration has conceded that the American intelligence community is split on Covid-19’s origins ~ it could be the lab or animal-to-human contact ~ and no one is near certain about it.

That marks a decisive shift from the criticism of the lab theory by many in the media and politics last year, when Mr Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Tom Cotton and others floated the idea. Mr. Biden has now seen through the rigmarole that has led the world, still less the United States of America, nowhere. The afflicted have been driven faster to death rather than to the faintest knowledge about the origin of Covid-19.

The comity of nations may never know the full truth about the virus’ origins, particularly if China continues to be less than cooperative. Mr Biden is pledging a full investigation. However, if the United States finds conclusive evidence of a lab leak, it will mean more than just a few prominent figures having to eat crow and re-evaluate their trust in authoritative “conclusions”. It could place very real strain on US-China relations for years to come.

In a statement on Wednesday, President Biden said he had asked for a report on the origins of Covid-19 after taking office, “including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident”. He has now asked the groups to report back to him within 90 days. The sick and the dying as well as the next of kin are awaiting conclusions embedded in science.