GOP Report Confirms COVID Leaked from Chinese Lab

“The preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] and that it did so sometime before September 12th, 2019,” reads a new report from Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

The committee’s investigation found “ample evidence” that WIV scientists had been studying ways to modify coronaviruses to infect humans. There was also evidence that the lab could have hidden such work from investigators. Research papers confirm WIV employees successfully modified coronaviruses without leaving fingerprints as early as 2016. Included in the report is the hypothesis that the viral sequence Chinese researchers turned into COVID-19 was from a cave in Yunnan province between 2012 and 2015.

The report claims WIV employees and CCP officials “directly engaged in efforts to obfuscate information related to the origins of the virus and to suppress public debate of a possible lab leak.”

These efforts were supported by the CDC at the start of the outbreak. 

The 84-page report includes disturbing information about safety protocols at the Wuhan lab. It includes a $1.5 million request for a complete overhaul of the facility’s environmental air disinfection and hazardous waste treatment systems when the lab was less than 2 years old.

“We know gain-of-function research was happening at the WIV and we know it was being done in unsafe conditions,” says Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We also now know the head of the Chinese CDC and the director of the WIV’s Biosafety Level-4 lab publicly expressed concerns about safety at PRC labs in the summer of 2019. It is our belief the virus leaked sometime in late August or early September 2019.” 

The following events occurred around that same time: 

• WIV employees started to report COVID-like symptoms.
• Wuhan University issued an unexpected notice for laboratory inspections.
• WIV removed its virus database from the Internet. It also requested more than $1 million in additional security and appointed a PLA bioweapons expert to head the lab. 
• Satellite images confirm a sharp increase in hospital visits in Wuhan.

Wuhan hosted the 2019 Military World Games in October, creating the first “super spreader event” of the pandemic, adds McCaul. By December, four countries that sent athletes to the event had confirmed the presence of COVID-19.

Moving forward, McCaul hopes to subpoena Peter Daszak (a member of EcoHealth Alliance accused of participating in the coverup) and WIV scientist Shi Zhengli to testify before the committee. The report also asks Congress to impose sanctions on WIV scientists and CCP officials who participated in the “greatest coverup of all time.”

Leading medical and intelligence officials who previously dismissed the lab-leak theory have admitted the WIV could have genetically modified the virus. Especially given its highly infectious nature. President Joe Biden in May gave US intelligence agencies 90 days to determine the origin of COVID-19. The report is due August 24th.

China denies all accusations.

Sources:

GOP Report: Coronavirus Leaked From Chinese Lab 

GOP report says evidence points to COVID emerging from Wuhan lab 

Wuhan lab report raises further questions about possible COVID-19 lab leak 

Republican investigation reportedly ‘proves’ COVID leaked from Wuhan lab