A domestic investigation into the origins of COVID-19 suggests that the virus may have been part of China’s biological weapons research program when it was accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan.
The interim reportThe announcement was made Wednesday by the Republican-led House Select Committee on Intelligence. last year’s results The virus was not developed by the Chinese government as a biological weapon, according to the intelligence community.
“Based on our investigation, which included a variety of public and private information, we concluded that SARS-CoV-2 may have been linked to China’s biological weapons research program and may have spread to humans when conducted in a laboratory. An incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV),” the report said.
“The committee saw no indication that the Chinese military intentionally released SARS-CoV-2,” it said.
The GOP report also accused the intelligence community of withholding information from Congress and “downplaying” the possibility that COVID-19 was linked to China’s bioweapons program.
“Our own IC withheld relevant information from his oversight committee, the American public, and the world at large. The IC must provide the Committee with all requested documents, as well as declassify the information contained in the committee’s confidential report, it can do so without disclosing its sources and methods,” the report said.
“The Committee IC has reason to believe that SARS-CoV2 is less likely to have been linked to China’s bioweapons program, based in part on outside experts’ input,” it added.
A security guard walks reporters away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology after a World Health Organization team arrived to visit Wuhan in China’s Hubei province.
Members of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease are seen.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer, Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Intelligence Permanent Select Committee Ranking Member Mike Turner issued a joint statement praised the panel’s work on Wednesday and vowed to continue investigations into the pandemic in the GOP-controlled Congress next year.
“Americans have a responsibility to answer about the origins and future health threats of COVID-19, and they deserve leaders in Washington who are determined to find the truth,” the statement said.
“Today’s HPSCI report under the leadership of Rep. Wenstrup indicates significant progress in achieving this goal. The findings cast more culpability on the Chinese Communist Party, highlight the failure of the intelligence community to share relevant information with the American public and their representatives, and lend more credence to the lab leak theory — many government officials, Big Tech platforms . and the media quickly dubbed it a ‘conspiracy theory,'” the press release continues.
“The Republican majority will continue this important work across all jurisdictional committees, and we are committed to finding the facts of the pandemic that has negatively impacted millions of American families,” the Republican lawmakers added.
An investigation by the Senate Republican-led Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee found in October that there was no evidence to support the theory that the virus left a Chinese laboratory and that COVID-19 was transmitted from animals to humans. . The report also cited the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a possible source of the virus.
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