Republicans on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee released a report Wednesday (May 19) saying there is “substantial circumstantial evidence” that the New Coronavirus (Chinese Communist Party virus) (COVID-19) outbreak was caused by a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research. The report urges the federal government to put more pressure on the Chinese Communist Party to allow a “comprehensive and credible investigation” into the root cause of the global plague pandemic. “This is critical for health experts and the U.S. government to understand the origins of COVID-19 in order to prevent or rapidly mitigate future plague pandemics.”
Shi Zhengli (left) and researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research. (Photo credit: AP)
The report writes, “However, international efforts to investigate the true origin of the virus have been hampered by the lack of cooperation from the Chinese (communist) countries. Nonetheless, a large body of circumstantial evidence raises serious concerns that the COVID-19 outbreak may be the result of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research.”
Republican lawmakers pointed to the CCP’s “history of research lab leaks leading to viral infections” and the fact that U.S. diplomats warned back in 2017 that the Wuhan lab was conducting “dangerous research” on the coronavirus without following “necessary safety procedures, risking an accidental outbreak of a viral pandemic.”
They also refer to public reports that “several researchers at the Wuhan lab developed COVID-19-like symptoms in the fall of 2019” and that the Chinese Communist military “intervened in the Wuhan lab.”
The report reads, “In contrast, there is little circumstantial evidence to support the PRC’s claim that COVID-19 occurs naturally and is transmitted to humans from other species.” Communist authorities also said they tested more than 80,000 animals but “failed to identify the original species that allegedly transmitted the virus to humans, which is critical to their (CCP) theory of zoonotic virus transmission.”
Beijing’s cover-up of the outbreak also provided circumstantial evidence for the laboratory leak theory. According to the report, these moves included not acknowledging that the new coronavirus was infectious until Jan. 20, 2020, when the CCP shut down the Wuhan lab’s virus database.
Beijing also cracked down on reporting doctors in late December 2019 to silence them. At the time, the CCP tried to warn the public of an “unknown pneumonia” outbreak in Wuhan.
The report said, “The Wuhan virus laboratory and the CCP government obstructed and manipulated the 28-day WHO investigation into the origin of COVID-19.” This is another example of what the report says is a cover-up by the Chinese Communist Party.
The Republican committee also said there are “clear indications” that U.S. government agencies and academic institutions may have funded or collaborated with Wuhan Virus Laboratory on gain-of-function research, and said that “even after the U.S. government suspended such research in the United States, its findings continued to be published “. The suspension of the research in the United States is an ethical consideration because of its potential use in biological warfare and the possibility of accidentally causing a viral pandemic.
“To protect U.S. citizens from future viral pandemics, the U.S. government must exert greater pressure on the Chinese Communist Party to allow a full, credible investigation into the root causes of the COVID-19 pandemic and allow for the possibility of a laboratory leak,” the report said.” The U.S. government must also fully evaluate any U.S. collaboration with the Wuhan laboratory for coronavirus research, including the support of U.S. government funds for these projects.”
The report was released after senior Republican Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and other Republican members of the committee, sent letters to President Biden and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. The report accused the intelligence community of failing to provide timely updates on its investigation into the origins of the Chinese Communist virus (COVID-19) and of failing to describe “the investigative procedures used to reach authoritative conclusions about the origins of the virus in the early days of the pandemic. Its conclusions are now doubly questionable.”
The letter asked the intelligence community to turn over all information about the origin of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) and to provide any information about possible “cooperation” between the Wuhan laboratory and the Chinese Communist military. The letter also asked the intelligence community to provide any evidence that the coronavirus was a natural outbreak and originated in animals, and questioned whether the intelligence community was involved in any review of “gain-of-function” research and whether it was appropriate to fund such research outside the United States.
The letter asked the intelligence community to provide the information requested by the committee beginning May 31.
The White House said last month that the Chinese Communist Party was “opaque” in disclosing its findings on the origin of the new coronavirus in a report written in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO report denied that the new coronavirus was leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, saying instead that “the theory of zoonotic transmission, that is, the transfer of the virus from animals to humans, is very likely.
The White House said the WHO report lacked key information and provided only a “partial, incomplete picture” of the virus’ origin.
Even WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the team’s assessment of whether the coronavirus was transmitted to humans as a result of the laboratory leak was “far from adequate.
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