Republican report says COVID-19 leaked from lab in China; scientists still investigating the origin
Top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Mike McCaul, released the report which urged a bipartisan probe into the origin of the pandemic that has killed at least 4.4 million people worldwide.
FollowA report by United States Republicans released on Monday said the preponderance of evidence proves that the virus that caused COVID-19 pandemic leader from a Chinese research facility. However, the US intelligence agencies have not concluded. The report further cited 'ample evidence' that Wuhan Institue of Virology scientists, aided by Chinese and US government funds, was working on modifying coronaviruses to infect humans, and such manipulation could be hidden.
Top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Mike McCaul, released the report which urged a bipartisan probe into the origin of the pandemic that has killed at least 4.4 million people worldwide. However, China denies that genetically modified viruses leaked from the facility in Wuhan. It was where the first coronavirus was detected in 2019. Beijing has also denied allegations of a cover-up.
According to media reports, some experts initially suspected that pandemic was caused by an animal virus which was transmitted to humans at a seafood market.
The report stated that it's time to dismiss the wet market as the source completely and believe the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019.
Earlier in April, the top US intelligence agency said it concurred with the scientific consensus that the virus was not manufactured or genetically modifies. In May, President Joe Biden ordered intelligence agencies to accelerate their hunt for the virus's origin and report back in 90 days. However, a source familiar with current intelligence assessments said the US intelligence community has not concluded about the origin of the virus.
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