Covid-19 Origins: Latest US Report Points To 'Wuhan Lab-Leak', Slams Mitigation Measures As Unscientific

A 2-yr investigation into Covid outbreak has found the virus most likely came from an accident at a Wuhan lab, and that Dr Antony Fauci prompted 2020 study to “disprove” the lab leak theory.

File image of people with surgical face masks during the Covid pandemic.

Source : Getty Images

A US congressional subcommittee probing the origins of Covid-19 and the handling of the pandemic concluded its two-year investigation on the coronavirus pandemic on Monday. The virus likely spread from a lab leak in Wuhan in China, and that mitigation efforts by the US such as social distancing and came off as unscientific, ineffective measures, according to the findings published by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

"Since February 2023, the Select Subcommittee sought to produce a full after-action report to provide a road map of how we, in Congress, the Executive, and the private sector may better prepare for and respond to future pandemics,” subcommittee chair Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) wrote in a letter. 

"Throughout this process, the Select Subcommittee sent more than 100 investigative letters, conducted 38 transcribed interviews or depositions, held 25 hearings or meetings, and reviewed more than one million pages of documents from of custodians,” he noted. 

Wenstrup listed seven specific findings in his letter, including that the National Institutes of Health funded the controversial gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and that Operation Warp Speed was “tremendous success”, but slammed the public school closures as measures that will have an “enduring impact” on American children. 

Published on December 2, 2024, the final report titled “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward” released by the US subcommittee after its two-year investigation into the Covid-19 pandemic says several interviews were held behind closed doors, including two days of interviews with Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, earlier this year. 

The 520-page document encompassed a wide range of issues relating to the pandemic, including vaccinations, public health guidance, state-level actions and use of relief funds.

The report starts with the finding that the SARS-CoV-2 "likely emerged because of a laboratory or research related accident". The report also noted that China’s foremost SARS research lab is in Wuhan, "which has a history of conducting gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels", and 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".

Throwing Dr Fauci Under The Bus?

The report also found that Dr Anytony Fauci “prompted” the 2020 study titled "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2", which supported the natural origins theory, to “disprove” the lab leak theory.

The report said masks and mask mandates were “ineffective at controlling the spread of COVID-19”, and that lockdowns caused “more harm than good” to the economy, the overall health of Americans, and development of children. The 6-foot social distancing guidance was also blasted as not being “supported by science". 

Not Lab, But Wuhan Animal Wet Market Was The Covid Source?

Meanwhile, Nature.com has published a report released by the University of Tokyo on December 3, according to which many of the first Covid-19 cases to be identified were linked to Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. It could not be decided, however, if people brought the virus to the market, where they passed it on to others, or the market was the site of the first spillover events, in which animals with the virus first infected people. 

"The conclusion is convincing that there was infection in the animals,” says Spyros Lytras, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Tokyo. 

The results have not been peer-reviewed. The university researchers presented the findings at a conference held in Awaji, Japan, on December 3. The theme of the conference was: “Preparing for the Next Pandemic: Evolution, Pathogenesis and Virology of Coronaviruses”.

The writer is an independent journalist.