A report by Republican lawmakers says “multiple proofs” show that the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic came from a Chinese research facility. U.S. intelligence agencies have not come to that conclusion.
The report, released Monday, also cites “numerous pieces of evidence” that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, with the help of US experts and funding from the US and Chinese governments, were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans, and that such manipulations were done secretly.
Lawmaker Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House Home Affairs Committee, made the report public. It calls for bipartisan investigations into the origins of the pandemic that has so far killed more than 4.4 million people globally.
China has denied allegations that genetically modified coronaviruses have come out of the lab and one of them, originally spotted in late 2019, was the cause of the pandemic. Beijing also denies allegations that there were attempts to cover up the origins of the pandemic.
Some experts have hypothesized that the pandemic was caused by a virus transmitted from animals to humans at a fish market near the laboratory in Wuhan.
“We believe the time has come to completely rule out this theory that the pandemic started in the Wuhan market,” the report said. “We also believe that numerous evidences prove that the virus came out of the laboratory a few days before September 12, 2019.
The report cited new, or previously unreported, information on problems in safety protocols, including the request made in July 2019 for general repairs to the hazardous waste treatment system, which had only been in operation for two years.
In April, U.S. intelligence agencies said they came out in support of the scientists’ conclusions that the virus was not created in the laboratory and was not genetically modified.
President Joe Biden in May ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to expedite work to find out the origin of the pandemic and report the results within 90 days.
A source with knowledge on the work of intelligence agencies said that no conclusion has yet been reached as to whether the virus came from animals or came out of the laboratory.
