Washington, D.C. (Agencies): A new report from the US Congressional Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic concludes that Covid-19 most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The 520-page report, following a two-year investigation, found that the virus possessed a biological characteristic absent in nature and that all Covid-19 cases stemmed from a single introduction to humans, reinforcing the ‘lab leak’ theory.
The report also accuses the Chinese government, certain US agencies, and some members of the international scientific community of spreading misinformation about the pandemic’s origins. It highlights that China’s leading coronavirus research lab in Wuhan has a history of conducting gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels and that researchers at the lab were reportedly sick with a Covid-like virus in the fall of 2019, months before the pandemic was officially recognized.
The report criticizes the response of officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who previously dismissed the lab leak theory as “unconscionable” and “molecularly impossible.” The findings have intensified the ongoing political controversy over pandemic response and research oversight.