US lawmakers concluded a two-year investigation on Monday The outbreak of Covid-19 which killed 1.1 million Americans, supporting the theory that the virus likely escaped from a Chinese laboratory.
A 520-page report by the Republican-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic examined the federal and state response, as well as the origins of the pandemic and vaccination efforts.
“This work will help the United States and the world predict the next pandemic, prepare for the next pandemic, protect against the next pandemic, and hopefully prevent the next pandemic,” panel chair Brad Wenstrup said in a letter to Congress.
US federal agencies, the World Health Organization and scientists around the world have come to different conclusions about the likely origin of Covid-19, and no consensus has emerged.
Most believe it spread from animals in China, but a US intelligence analysis last year said the virus was genetically engineered and may have escaped from a virology laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where human cases first appeared.
The congressional panel was convinced by the theory of laboratory leaks after meeting 25 times, transcribing more than 30 interviews and reviewing more than a million pages of documents.
The investigation included two closed-door interviews with Anthony Fauci, the government scientist who became the nation’s most trusted expert during the chaotic early days of the 2020 outbreak.
Clashes with former and incoming President Donald Trump over Fauci’s response sparked outrage on the right, and he now lives with security protection after death threats against his family.
Republicans accuse the 83-year-old immunologist of helping to trigger the worst pandemic of the century by accepting funding for Chinese scientists accused of manufacturing the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
Among its main findings, the report said the National Institutes of Health funded controversial “gain-of-function” research – which aims to improve viruses to find ways to fight them – at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Fauci angrily denied covering up the origin of Covid-19 before the panel in June, arguing that it would be “molecularly impossible” for the bat virus studied in the lab to become the virus that caused the pandemic.
But the panel’s report said SARS-CoV-2 “likely arose as a result of a laboratory or research-related accident.”
An angry response in Beijing
Beijing responded to the report on Tuesday, saying it lacked “credibility” and accused the United States of using the revelation for “political manipulation”.
“The authoritative scientific conclusion from the joint China-WHO expert group … is that a laboratory spill is highly unlikely,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular press conference.
“In the absence of substantial evidence, the US report has drawn major conclusions, slandered China (and) presented false evidence,” he said.
The probe also found that the lockdown “did more harm than good” and that mask mandates were “ineffective in controlling the spread of Covid-19”, contradicting other research showing that masking in public reduces transmission rates.
Social distancing guidelines were also criticized, although the travel restrictions were believed to have saved lives.
The researchers found that Trump’s Operation Warp Speed - a funded project to develop Covid vaccines – was a “tremendous success”, but that school closures would have a “lasting impact” on US children.
