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COVID most likely leaked from a lab in Wuhan, a bombshell Congress report has concluded.
The 520-page report also revealed that the Department of Justice secretly investigated a New York-based company for clues about the origins of Covid - and potential criminal conduct.
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Following a two-year investigation involving dozens of interviews and high-profile hearings, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released its final report on Monday evening.
It said: "Four years after the onset of the worst pandemic in 100 years, the weight of the evidence increasingly supports the lab leak hypothesis.
"By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced."
The report noted that Wuhan Institute of Virology was China's top coronavirus research lab and it had "a history of conducting research at inadequate biosafety levels".
It added that researchers at the lab "were sick with a Covid-like virus in the fall of 2019, months before Covid-19 was discovered at the wet market".
The report accused the Chinese government, agencies in the US government and even members of the scientific community of a "cover up".
It also implicates a US organisation that worked with the Wuhan lab using taxpayer cash.
The Department of Justice launched a grand jury investigation - a probe into potential criminal conduct - into EcoHealth Alliance, the report reveals.
EcoHealth Alliance has been under fire since the early days of the pandemic over its bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab.
The group has faced scrutiny over whether Covid may have emerged from the research at the lab that was funded by the US government.
Bombshell new doc reveals US officials KNEW Wuhan lab leak was likely cause of Covid – but deliberately downplayed it
Experts claim the Wuhan lab and EcoHealth Alliance endangered the world by carrying out so-called "gain of function" experiments to engineer chimeric viruses.
This "souping up" involves extracting viruses from animals to engineer in a lab to make them more transmissible and deadly to humans.
And the report found that the US government did fund this type of research at the lab.
The details of the federal investigation remain secret - but it raises questions about whether some in the scientific community could face criminal charges over the pandemic.
Internal emails and records from EcoHealth Alliance in the report reveal that the Department of Justice issued subpoenas for genetic sequences of the company's virus research in Wuhan.
It also asked for correspondence between EcoHealth Alliance boss, Dr Peter Daszak, and Dr Shi Zhengli - known as "batwoman" - who was at the helm at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
In May, the US government suspended funding to EcoHealth Alliance.
China's government has engaged in a 5-year systematic coverup by destroying samples, hiding records, imprisoning journalists, gagging scientists, and blocking any meaningful international investigation
Jamie MetzlFormer WHO adviser
A government investigation found it had "mismanaged" grants in Wuhan.
The funding suspension came after we revealed the government had dished out some $60million of public money to the organisation since the start of the pandemic - despite questions still raging over its work at the Wuhan lab.
EcoHealth Alliance's attorney told the committee that neither the non-profit nor Dr Daszak are the target of the Department of Justice investigation.
But the Congress report includes evidence that Dr Daszak misled the committee on questions central to the probe into the origins of Covid.
Investigators said the EcoHealth Alliance boss exported gain-of-function coronavirus experiments to China and neglected his duty to push his Wuhan colleagues for lab notebooks after the pandemic.
He also failed to provide samples and genomic data - and helped to persuade millions that the idea of a Wuhan lab leak was a conspiracy theory, the report said.
An email made available for the first time shows that Dr Daszak never asked Dr Shi for critical data that might have helped with the probe into the origins.
Congress report confirms what we suspected
By Imogen Braddick, Assistant Foreign Editor
Finally, politicians have said what many scientists and journalists have been saying for years - that Covid did leak from a dodgy lab in Wuhan.
But how has it taken five years to say what many people suspected within weeks of China admitting there was a new virus on the loose?
In a bombshell move, Congress accused governments and members of the scientific community of trying to cover-up facts about the origins of the pandemic.
And the report is an acknowledgement that the lab leak theory is not a conspiracy - after years of shaming anyone who dare question the "consensus".
It's a step in the right direction in the fight for justice for the millions of people who lost loved ones in the pandemic.
Many will continue to question why finding the origins of the pandemic is important.
It's important for the families of millions who died. It's also important if we want to stop the next pandemic.
If Covid did leak from a lab, we must have more oversight over risky lab research. If it was a natural spillover event, we must take steps to try and prevent a similar disaster.
The Congress report is a welcome victory - but it's taken far too long for a government to take the lead on the probe into the origins.
Here, the UK government is rightly examining the response to the pandemic with the Covid-19 Inquiry.
But it should also pay more attention to where the virus came from if we want to stop another pandemic killing millions more.
There's still much more evidence to be found, clues to be uncovered and scientists to quiz.
The pair also expressed shared outrage that the US government was investigating their research.
In an email dated April 28, 2024, Dr Shi wrote: "Dear Peter, I fully support you! I believe you will beat them down. Shame on those stupid politicians!"
Congressman Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, said Dr Daszak "should never again receive US taxpayer dollars".
Investigators also blasted the US government for incorrectly calling the lab leak theory a "conspiracy" - and peddling "misinformation".
It said: "Unfortunately, knee-jerk reactions by the federal government did little to fix the problem and instead may have sowed deeper distrust of government institutions while trampling on the First Amendment of the Constitution."
The report hits out at Anthony Fauci - the top US infectious disease expert in government until 2022 - saying he pushed back on the lab leak theory.
It also says he "prompted" a report called "The Proximal Origin" that was used to discredit the theory.
The report stated: "Although Dr. Fauci believed the lab leak theory to be a conspiracy theory at the start of the pandemic, it now appears that his position is that he does have an open mind about the origin of the virus - so long as it does not implicate EcoHealth Alliance, and by extension himself and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"Understandably, as he signed off on the EcoHealth Alliance grant."
What happened in Wuhan?
THE Wuhan Institute of Virology has been at the centre of the lab leak theory ever since Covid first emerged just a stone's throw from the facility - which was known to be studying very similar bat viruses.
Declassified intelligence documents confirmed Wuhan scientists first fell sick in late 2019 with Covid-like symptoms - raising questions over whether they were accidentally infected in the lab.
Scientist Shi Zhengli - dubbed 'Batwoman' - had been experimenting with bat coronaviruses for years at the Wuhan lab.
The lab began hunting the origin of SARS viruses in 2003, attracted US-government funding and was shown cutting-edge virus manipulation techniques.
They were running secret dangerous secret experiments combining the most deadly coronaviruses - which it initially made public and justified by claiming it could help develop vaccines.
But many scientists and intelligence officials suspect researchers at the lab accidentally spread Covid during risky so-called "gain of function" experiments on coronaviruses.
Both China and the lab have furiously denied any allegations - but evidence of a lab leak has been piling up as scientists, researchers and governments hunt for answers and step forward with evidence.
Investigators combing for clues have uncovered documents pointing to alleged cover-ups, plans to make viruses with the exact same features as Covid, and apparent links to the Chinese military.
Other reports have named Covid 'Patient Zero' as a Wuhan scientist and even China's own government scientist said a lab leak should not be ruled out.
The Sun also interviewed a Wuhan lab leak whistleblower who claimed he was trailed by the FBI to silence him.
And a bombshell study uncovered a string of biosafety hazards at "crowded and chaotic" labs in Wuhan - including filthy animal cages and crumbling sewers.
The FBI and the US Department of Energy now believe Covid most likely leaked from a lab in China.
Former intelligence chiefs and diplomats have claimed Covid was leaked from a Wuhan lab in the "cover-up of the century".
And the World Health Organisation reportedly believes Covid did leak from the lab after a "catastrophic accident".
Despite many theories emerging, scientists and researchers have not yet been able to determine the origins of the pandemic - with a lab leak and a natural source both being probed.
China has long been accused of attempting to cover up or distort its role in the story of Covid - something it denies.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told The New York Post that the committee will "continue pursuing records and answers that have so far been withheld from its investigations".
Responding to the report, Jamie Metzl, who worked under Joe Biden when he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said China's government "has engaged in a systematic cover-up".
He said: "The US House @COVIDSelect Committee has determined that #COVID19 most likely leaked from a Wuhan lab.
"It can't 100% confirm this assessment because China's government has engaged in a 5 year systematic cover-up by destroying samples, hiding records, imprisoning journalists, gagging scientists, and blocking any meaningful international investigation.
"As in a mafia trial where the witnesses keep disappearing, China's malfeasance can only be construed as an acknowledgement of guilt."
The Chinese government hit back at the committee's report - saying it had "no credibility".
It said the joint investigation between China and the World Health Organisation in 2021 found a "laboratory leak is extremely unlikely".
The report comes just weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House - with a cabinet who are expected to prioritise the investigation into the origins of Covid.
Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor, Rep. Mike Waltz, was one of the first lawmakers in early 2020 to work with WCW to defund the Wuhan lab
Justin GoodmanWhite Coat Waste Project
Justin Goodman, White Coat Waste's Vice President, believes Trump and his administration could finally "get some real answers".
He said: “I think we’re finally going to get some real answers and accountability for what happened in Wuhan because Donald Trump and many of his cabinet picks who will have authority to investigate like Matt Gaetz, Mike Waltz, and RFK Jr have been on Team Lab Leak.
"Trump’s pick for National Security Advisor, Rep. Mike Waltz, was one of the first lawmakers in early 2020 to work with WCW to defund the Wuhan lab.
"[He] has been fighting for years to uncover the origin of Covid and working with us to pass legislation to cut funding for animal labs in China and other adversarial nations.
"John Ratcliffe, Trump’s former Director of National Intelligence who has been tapped to serve as CIA Director, believes a lab leak caused Covid and would have the authority to declassify intelligence on the pandemic’s origins that the Biden administration has refused to release."
The FBI and the US Department of Energy believe Covid most likely leaked from a lab in China.
Dozens of experts, including the World Health Organisation, have also suggested Covid could have escaped from the Wuhan lab - and linked the outbreak to the project by EcoHealth Alliance.
And in September, former PM Boris Johnson said he also believes the pandemic was caused by a lab leak - and did not originate in a Wuhan wet market.
The natural origins theory contends that Covid jumped from bats into humans through an "intermediate host".
But an animal host has not been found after nearly five years of searching.
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English (US) · 