FILE: Washington D.C., USA - May 12, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. White House
2. Secret Service officers outside White House
3. Lafayette Park, White House

Beijing, China - June 4, 2021 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Wang Guan, anchor, China Global Television Network (CGTN):
"It is important to get to the bottom of things to find the source of the virus that killed millions. It could help us prevent the next one. But the timing of the Biden probe brought many questions too. Like why investigate now a lab-leak theory that was declared by most mainstream scientists as either unlikely, extremely unlikely or outright conspiracy theory?"

FILE: Wuhan City, Hubei Province, central China - Exact Date Unknown (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Wuhan Institute of Virology
6. Various of nameplate of Wuhan Institute of Virology of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Beijing, China - June 4, 2021 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Wang Guan, anchor, China Global Television Network (CGTN) (starting with shot 6/partially overlaid with shots 8-9):
"Shi Zhengli, China's top coronavirus expert at Wuhan Institute of Virology said all staff had tested negative for COVID-19 antibodies. Some folks would say, wait a minute, all Chinese sources must be taken with a pinch of salt these days, and they have a right to think so. But what about American sources? This Wall Street Journal report on sick Chinese scientists was based on a 'previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report'. So it was a government leak-turned-news, an intentional leak from the U.S. intel community that became a media story that in turn prompted Biden to order an intel investigation."
++SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

FILE: Wuhan City, Hubei Province, central China - Date Unknown (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Various of building of Wuhan Institute of Virology
9. National Biosafety Laboratory, Wuhan
++SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

FILE: Wuhan City, Hubei Province, central China - March 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
10. Various of researchers working in lab

FILE: Wuhan City, Hubei Province, central China - May 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. Various of researchers conducting experiments

FILE: Geneva, Switzerland - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
12. Various of World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters, WHO logo on wall

Beijing, China - June 4, 2021 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Wang Guan, anchor, China Global Television Network (CGTN) (starting with shots 11-12/partially overlaid with shots 14-18):
"The WHO investigation team to Wuhan said it is 'extremely unlikely' that the coronavirus was leaked from a Chinese lab. U.S. officials, of course, accused the trip of 'lack of transparency and access', citing a lot of circumstantial evidence. But many international research teams, including one supported by America's National Institute of Science, also used sophisticated bioinformatic tools to compare genomic data from several coronaviruses, including the one that causes COVID-19, concluded that 'the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 almost certainly originated in nature', just like Ebola, Zika or HIV."
++SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

FILE: Geneva, Switzerland - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
14. World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters

FILE: Wuhan City, Hubei Province, central China - Jan 14, 2021 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
15. Plane carrying WHO expert team
16. Airport staff in protective suits
17. Various of WHO experts walking under guidance of people wearing protective suits, boarding bus
18. WHO experts in bus
++SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE++

FILE: Wuhan City, Hubei Province, central China - June 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
19. Various of researcher processing samples for nucleic acid test in lab

Beijing, China - June 4, 2021 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Wang Guan, anchor, China Global Television Network (CGTN) (ending with shots 21-24):
"It is important to find the virus' 'truest' origin. But if the mission is motivated primarily by politics, perhaps it could wait. After all, there are more urgent things to do, like boosting production and efficacy of vaccines and ensuring a fair distribution. Because as we speak, ten of the world's richer countries now possess some 75 percent of global vaccines, and tens of millions of lives are on the line in India, in Nepal, in Brazil, in Mexico and elsewhere battling this virus."

New York City, USA - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
21. Residents registering for vaccination
22. Medical workers preparing COVID-19 vaccines
23. Various of medical workers inoculating residents

New Delhi, India - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
24. Various of patients in ward
25. Medical worker taking notes
26. People inside hospital

It's more urgent now for countries to work on coronavirus pandemic control and vaccination than an investigation into the virus' origins primarily motivated by politics, said China Global Television Network (CGTN) anchor Wang Guan on Friday while commenting on U.S. President Joe Biden's order for the American intelligence community to conduct an investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus.

The full text of the commentary is as follows:

On May 26, Biden ordered the U.S. intelligence community to trace the origins of COVID-19.

That includes investigating a theory that says the virus emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, instead of emerging in nature.

Don't get me wrong, guys. It is important to get to the bottom of things to find the source of the virus that killed millions. It could help us prevent the next one. But the timing of the Biden probe brought many questions too. Like why investigate now a lab-leak theory that was declared by most mainstream scientists as either unlikely, extremely unlikely or outright conspiracy theory?

A short answer is the probe has been sought by many Republicans and some Democrats too and was prompted by a Wall Street Journal report on May 23, saying three Chinese scientists in Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick in November 2019. The symptoms, the report says, could be COVID-19, although it could also be seasonal illnesses like a flu.

Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who was on a World Health Organization (WHO) mission to Wuhan, attributed the sickness of the three Chinese doctors to regular seasonal sicknesses, saying "there were occasional illnesses because that's normal. There was nothing that stood out".

Shi Zhengli, China's top coronavirus expert at Wuhan Institute of Virology said all staff had tested negative for COVID-19 antibodies. Some folks would say, wait a minute, all Chinese sources must be taken with a pinch of salt these days, and they have a right to think so. But what about American sources? This Wall Street Journal report on sick Chinese scientists was based on a 'previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report'. So it was a government leak-turned-news, an intentional leak from the U.S. intel community that became a media story that in turn prompted Biden to order an intel investigation.

Are you having deja vu?

Peter Daszak, a WHO investigator who's been to Wuhan said on May 27 that Biden's probe is "not scientific... It's political... It's not something that you can really reasonably launch a major audit of."

The WHO investigation team to Wuhan said it is "extremely unlikely" that the coronavirus was leaked from a Chinese lab. U.S. officials, of course, accused the trip of "lack of transparency and access", citing a lot of circumstantial evidence. But many international research teams, including one supported by America's National Institute of Science, also used sophisticated bioinformatic tools to compare genomic data from several coronaviruses, including the one that causes COVID-19, concluded that "the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 almost certainly originated in nature", just like Ebola, Zika or HIV.

Now, the U.S. intelligence community has 90 days to present their findings to President Biden. Truth be told, it is the most formidable intelligence network anywhere in the world.

But if history has taught us anything, that is, it can also make mistakes. During the Bay of Pig incident in the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) failed to provide President John F. Kennedy the assessment that a covert military operation on Cuba could actually fail without overt U.S. military support, clouding the judgment of Kennedy and contributing to the failed attack.

Before the former Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970s, the U.S. intelligence community did not warn President Jimmy Carter because it assumed that "the specter of a costly quagmire" would deter the Soviets from doing so.

And we're not even talking about the "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq in 2003, an intelligence failure that President George W. Bush called his "biggest regret".

So back to Biden's COVID-19 tracing mission, it is important to find the virus' "truest" origin. But if the mission is motivated primarily by politics, perhaps it could wait. After all, there are more urgent things to do, like boosting production and efficacy of vaccines and ensuring a fair distribution. Because as we speak, ten of the world's richer countries now possess some 75 percent of global vaccines, and tens of millions of lives are on the line in India, in Nepal, in Brazil, in Mexico and elsewhere battling this virus.