Covid Virus Leaked From China's Wuhan Virology Lab: US Republican Report

The report also raises concern that the lab was conducting "gain-of-function" research in an unsafe environment.

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New Delhi: In a report issued by the US Republicans said that there is evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic spreading virus came from a leak in a Chinese lab, something US Intelligence agencies haven't confirmed as of now. 

The report also said that there was "ample evidence" that points towards the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists who were aided by US experts and Chinese and US government funds were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans. The report also raises concern that the lab was conducting "gain-of-function" research in an unsafe environment.

According to a Reuters report, Mike McCaul, top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the report and urged for a bipartisan investigation into the origins of the virus which has taken millions of lives worldwide. 

"As we continue to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, I believe it's time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source of the outbreak. Instead, as this report lays out, a preponderance of the evidence proves that all roads lead to the WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology)," McCaul said in a statement.

China has repeatedly denied that the virus was genetically modified and leaked from the facility in Wuhan, also, Beijing has denied allegations of a cover-up. 

Some experts believe that the virus was transmitted from animals to humans at the seafood market near the Wuhan lab. 

"We now believe it's time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source," said the report according to Reuters. "We also believe the preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019."

According to the Republican report, maintenance and renovation taking place at the WIV and the adjacent lab, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, related to its hazardous waste treatment system and air conditioning systems while carrying out research on coronaviruses, is a cause of concern.

Such instances were taking place in the months preceding the first known cases of Covid-19, the report states.

Further, the investigators suggest that the first cases of Covid occurred in August or September of 2019, and not mid-November, as another report has suggested. They also flagged that scientists at the Wuhan lab, including American researchers, had the ability to modify genetically altered viruses without leaving any trace that they had been tampered with, the Hill reported.

"An American scientist, Dr Ralph Baric, assisted in creating a method to leave no trace of genetic modification as early as 2005," the report states.

"And as early as 2017, scientists working at the WIV were able to do the same. This makes it clear that claims by the scientific community that SARS-CoV-2 [Covid-19] could not be man-made because it has no genetic modification markers are disingenuous."