UK health minister says need full investigation into COVID-19 origins

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FILE PHOTO: Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock delivers a speech on the COVID-19 vaccine programme at the Jenner institute in Oxford, Britain June 2, 2021. Jacob King/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) – British health minister Matt Hancock on Thursday said that there needs to be a fully independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19 that is allowed to take place without interference in China.

“It is vital that we have a fully independent investigation in China into finding out all we can about this, and that that is allowed to happen unencumbered,” he told lawmakers.

“And part of the reforms that we need, to the way that the worldwide systems operate, is to make sure that we can properly find answers to these questions, because at the moment, it is impossible to know… we do need to get to the bottom of this.”