House Republicans kicked off an investigation Monday into the origins of COVID-19 by issuing a series of letters to current and former Biden administration officials for documents and testimony. The Republican chairmen of the House Oversight Committee and the subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic requested information from several people, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, surrounding the hypothesis that the coronavirus leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab. "This investigation must begin with where and how this virus came about so that we can attempt to predict, prepare or prevent it from happening again," Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who chairs the virus subcommittee, said in a statement, the AP reports.
Rep. James Comer, chairman of the oversight committee, added that Republicans will "follow the facts" and "hold US government officials that took part in any sort of coverup accountable." Letters also were sent to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, Health Secretary Xavier Beccera, and others. Wenstrup, a longtime member of the Intelligence Committee, has accused US intelligence of withholding key facts about its investigation into the coronavirus. Committee Republicans last year issued a staff report arguing that there are "indications" that the virus may have been developed as a bioweapon inside the China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. It is extremely difficult for scientists to establish how diseases emerge, but studies around the world have determined that COVID-19 most likely emerged from a live animal market in Wuhan, China.
That would contradict a US intelligence community assessment released in unclassified form in August 2021 that said analysts did not believe the virus was a bioweapon, though it may have leaked in a lab accident. The letters sent Monday do not require the cooperation of recipients. But in announcing the Republican staff report in December, Wenstrup said lawmakers would issue subpoenas if potential witnesses didn't cooperate. Fauci, who served as the country's top infectious disease expert under both Republican and Democratic presidents, indicated in November that he would "cooperate fully and testify" if Republicans followed through with their plans to investigate COVID's origin. "I have no trouble testifying—we can defend and explain everything that we've said," he told reporters last year.
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