We first learned of the COVID-19 virus after a cluster of severe pneumonia cases were reported in the city of Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. Within weeks, person-to-person spread of the virus was confirmed worldwide. The Chinese government claims COVID-19 originated at a crowded Wuhan wet market where customers buy fresh meat and fish, including live animals that are slaughtered when purchased. These crowded conditions could allow viruses from different animals to exchange genes and allow a virus to mutate to the point it can infect and spread among people. Bats carry many coronaviruses and in the past 20 years several disease outbreaks have been linked to these bat-borne viruses. According to the Chinese government, this was the origin of COVID-19, as bats are sold there

However, The Wuhan Institute of Virology - the first laboratory in China to receive the highest level of biosafety clearance – is located in close proximity to this wet market. This facility conducts research on some of the most dangerous known viruses, including the Ebola, Nipah and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever viruses. Investigations have shown the pandemic virus was not genetically engineered, but researchers know it was modified. Nevertheless, many people blame China for this global pandemic because it withheld the fact that the virus was capable of human-to-human transmission, and the Chinese government failed to stop its spread - allowing air travel to continue unabated while they were battling the outbreak.

One U.S. intelligence report disclosed that three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology sought hospital care in November 2019 for COVID-like symptoms a month before China reported the first cases of the pandemic. Another stunning report recently released by the British press says Wuhan scientists worked alongside the country’s military to combine the world’s most deadly viruses and make them more infectious to humans - which may have led to the creation of the COVID-19 virus. According to investigators who examined intercepted communications and scientific research, Chinese scientists who were running this secret program leaked COVID-19 into the city of Wuhan after a laboratory accident.

However, the question of COVID-19’s origins may never be definitively answered because the Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, international collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out, and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country. Critics claim these efforts prove the Chinese Government is hiding the likelihood that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab and did not have a natural origin.


Pending Legislation: H.R.685 - Chinese Government COVID–19 Accountability Act
Sponsor: Rep. Gregory Steube (FL)
Status: House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Chairperson: Rep. Michael McCaul (TX)

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