US PRESIDENT Joe Biden was accused of “sugar-coating [Donald] Trump’s racist approach” today after renewing the “conspiracy theory” that Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese lab.

An international scientific investigation concluded that the lab theory, which German intelligence described last year as a “calculated attempt to distract” from the US’s catastrophic Covid record, was incorrect in February, but Mr Biden has now ordered US spooks to investigate it again and report back to him in 90 days.

Scientists and the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported full Chinese co-operation with the investigation into Covid-19’s origins earlier this year. 

British zoologist Peter Daszak said he had found “trust and openness with my China counterparts” and criticised media reports for twisting scientists’ words to fit a prearranged “blame China” narrative.

But Mr Biden said he wanted to “keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation.”

China’s US embassy said that “smear campaigns and blame shifting are making a comeback, and the conspiracy theory of ‘lab leak’ is resurfacing.”

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said US intelligence agencies had a “dark history” and any claims they come forward with should be viewed with scepticism.

Carlos Martinez of the No Cold War campaign told the Morning Star that Mr Biden’s move shows he is “continuing down the path of a new cold war.

“In February this year, the WHO carried out its initial investigation into the origins of the pandemic. The research team stated that it received the full co-operation and support of Chinese officials and scientists. 

“The WHO, as the United Nations agency responsible for international public health, is precisely the body that should be carrying out this vital scientific work.

“The US constructing an informal group of ‘like-minded partners’ (ie its allies) to carry out a separate investigation, bypassing the WHO, is the behaviour of a rogue state.

“Spreading conspiracy theories about China’s involvement in the pandemic is simply a sugar-coating of Trump’s flagrantly racist approach — insisting on calling the virus ‘kung flu’ and the ‘China virus’.

“This feeds into the type of vile anti-Asian racism that inspired the Atlanta massacre just two months ago,” Mr Martinez warned, calling on Washington to “end these provocations.”