Covid-19 Origin Potentially Linked to Lab Leak, New US Report Reveals

A newly released US report suggests a potential link between Covid-19’s origin and a laboratory leak, reigniting global debates on pandemic accountability and transparency.

A report from the US Congressional Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, resulting from a two-year investigation, has concluded that Covid-19 likely originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. This 520-page document highlights that the virus exhibits a biological feature not found in nature, suggesting that all cases of Covid-19 can be traced back to a single introduction to humans, thereby supporting the ‘lab leak’ hypothesis.

The report alleges that the Chinese government, certain US government agencies, and some members of the global scientific community attempted to conceal information regarding the origins of the pandemic.

Initially identified in Wuhan in December 2019, the coronavirus rapidly spread worldwide, resulting in over 7 million fatalities.

The report further asserts that Wuhan’s premier coronavirus research facility has a history of conducting gain-of-function research under insufficient biosafety conditions. It claims that lab researchers exhibited symptoms of a COVID-like virus in the fall of 2019, prior to the virus’s identification at the wet market. The report states, “By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, it was theorized that the virus emerged from a Chinese wet market, known for selling various meats, fish, produce, and exotic animals in unsanitary environments.

In 2020, former President Donald Trump asserted, without evidence, that the virus had originated from a Chinese laboratory, a claim that Beijing dismissed as a political maneuver to enhance Trump’s appeal among Republican voters.

During this period, then-Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian propagated an unfounded conspiracy theory suggesting that the virus may have been introduced to China by the US military.

In 2021, former President Trump asserted that China should be held liable for reparations due to its involvement in the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming that a proper assessment of the global damage could reveal a debt exceeding $60 trillion.

During the same year, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who served as the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and faced significant scrutiny regarding his pandemic management, described the suggestion that laboratory research was responsible for the Covid-19 outbreak as “unconscionable” and “molecularly impossible.”

The Select Committee’s report criticized the actions of officials, stating, “members and staff have uncovered significant corruption within America’s public health system, confirmed the most probable origin of the pandemic, held accountable those responsible for COVID-19, and promoted bipartisan agreement on critical issues arising from the pandemic.”