The theory of a virus leak at the Wuhan lab is increasingly becoming a focus of the U.S. Congress. Republican lawmakers are leading a “comprehensive” investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 (Chinese Communist virus) pandemic, including the possibility of an “accidental” leak from the Wuhan lab. They have also sent a letter to the Secretary of State asking for more documents to be released to help the investigation.
Pictured is the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research in China
According to Fox News, Reps. Cathy McMorris Rogers and Brett Guthrie and H. Morgan Griffith, the top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote to Secretary of State Blinken this week asking He provided documents to “assist” in their investigation into the origin of the virus.
Wuhan lab has been a focus of U.S. government and WHO virus investigations
In the letter, the lawmakers wrote that public health is within the committee’s jurisdiction and that “as leaders of this congressional committee, we strongly support a full investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the possibility of an accidental laboratory leak.”
The State Department released a “fact check” on COVID-19 on Jan. 15, which described the Wuhan Institute for Virus Research (WIV) as collaborating with the Chinese Communist military on classified research, including laboratory animal experiments. The Republicans asked Blinken to release unclassified documents related to the findings in this fact check, and to declassify other documents for public inspection as appropriate.
The fact check was released on the eve of former Secretary of State Pompeo’s departure from office. The fact check focuses on three actions related to WIV and the origin of the virus that require further review and warrant further investigation.1) The issue of WIV insiders who became ill.Several researchers within WIV became ill in the fall of 2019, before the first cases were confirmed. The symptoms of these researchers are consistent with COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses; 2) WIV research on “RaTG13” and “gain of function”. The “RaTG13” virus is the bat coronavirus identified by WIV in January 2020 and is the closest sample to SARS-CoV-2 (96.2% similarity); and 3) WIV’s covert connection to military research. Although WIV presents itself as a civilian institution, WIV has collaborated with the Chinese Communist military on both publications and covert projects. Since 2017, WIV has been conducting classified research on behalf of the CCP military, including animal testing in laboratories.
These Republican lawmakers noted that WIV has been a major focus of U.S. government and World Health Organization inspections of COVID-19 sources. The State Department’s release of relevant documents could help rebut some of the claims made by CCP researchers about possible virus leaks at WIV.
Senior WIV researcher Shi Zhengli called the U.S. assertion of a virus leak at the Wuhan lab “wrong.
Blinken last month accused the Chinese government of failing to provide real-time access to international experts, real-time information sharing, and real-time true transparency during the initial outbreak of the virus. One consequence of this was that the virus got out of control “much faster” and the results were much worse.
More Republican Lawmakers Demand U.S. Government Release Documents
Meanwhile, in a separate investigation, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin wrote a letter to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), asking him to provide further information about the cause of COVID-19.
In his letter to Fauci on Wednesday (May 5), Gallagher wrote, “Understanding the cause of this (virus) pandemic and ensuring that something like it does not happen again is the most important issue facing the world today.”
“Given what is at stake, we cannot settle for a limited, blinkered or politicized understanding of the origins of this terrible disease.” Gallagher said.
And in the Congressional Senate, Republican Senators Josh Hawley (R-Okla.) and Mike Braun (R-Okla.) have introduced a bill. The bill would force the Biden administration to declassify intelligence related to the origins of COVID-19.
“For more than a year, anyone who raised questions about the Wuhan Virus Institute has been branded a conspiracy theorist.” In a statement last month, Hawley said, “The world needs to know if the pandemic is the product of negligence at the Wuhan lab, but the Chinese Communist Party has done everything in its power to prevent a credible investigation.”
He added that “the Biden administration must declassify what it knows about the Wuhan lab and Beijing’s attempts to cover up the origins of the pandemic.”
Braun likewise said that determining the origin of COVID-19 “is critical to preventing future pandemics, and as investigations and research into the origin of the virus continue, the Biden administration should declassify information related to any potential link between China’s Wuhan Biological Research Laboratory and the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The White House said last month that it believes the Chinese Communist Party failed to be transparent in its cooperation with the WHO in writing the investigative report on the origins of COVID-19.
The report concluded that the possibility of the virus leaking from the Wuhan laboratory was defined as “highly unlikely” and concluded that it was “very likely” that the virus was transmitted from a bat to a human through another animal, while the virus was transmitted directly from a bat to a human or through frozen food. The possibility of transmission lies somewhere in the middle.
The White House said the WHO report on China lacked key information and provided only a “partial, incomplete picture” of the source of the virus.
The White House last month called on the Communist Party and the WHO to give international experts “unfettered access” to the data and allow them to ask questions of local witnesses to the outbreak.
Following the release of the report, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in response to questions, explained to WHO member states that the WHO mission to Wuhan, China, to study the origin of the virus was blocked from obtaining data in China and that the origin of the virus needed further investigation. He also publicly admitted for the first time in his speech that he could not rule out the possibility of the virus leaking from the Wuhan laboratory.
Tandse said the WHO mission did not fully analyze the possibility of a laboratory leak before concluding that the pathogen could have been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal. He said further investigation is still needed and that additional missions may be sent back to China to investigate again.
“I am not convinced that this assessment is broad enough,” Tandse said, “and further data and studies are needed to reach a stronger conclusion.”
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