A new US Congressional report concludes that the COVID-19 virus originated in a Wuhan research laboratory, further alleging a concerted effort to suppress information by Chinese and US officials, as well as elements of the international scientific community.
A two-year investigation by the US Congressional Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic resulted in a 520-page report asserting that COVID-19 most likely emerged from a Wuhan laboratory. The report cites unique biological characteristics of the virus not found in nature and data suggesting a single point of origin, strengthening the “lab leak” hypothesis.
The report alleges a cover-up involving the Chinese government, US government agencies, and parts of the international scientific community regarding the pandemic’s origins.
First appearing in Wuhan in December 2019, the coronavirus caused over 7 million deaths globally.
The report states that Wuhan’s leading coronavirus research lab “has a history of conducting gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels.” It also claims that researchers at the lab “were sick with a COVID-like virus in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market.” “By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced,” the report adds.
Initial theories attributed the virus’s emergence to a Wuhan wet market, known for its unsanitary conditions and sale of various animals.
In 2020, then-President Trump asserted, without evidence, that the virus originated in a Chinese lab. Beijing countered that this was a political tactic aimed at boosting Trump’s electoral prospects.
Former Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian then promoted the unfounded claim that the US military introduced the virus to China.
In 2021, Trump called for China to pay reparations for its role in the pandemic, suggesting the amount could reach $60 trillion.
That same year, Dr. Anthony Fauci, then President Biden’s chief medical advisor, called the lab leak theory “unconscionable” and “molecularly impossible.”
The Select Committee’s report also criticizes the official response, stating that “members and staff have exposed high-level corruption in America’s public health system, confirmed the most likely origin of the pandemic, held COVID-19 bad actors publicly accountable, fostered bipartisan consensus on consequential pandemic-era issues.”